THE 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL 


BY 


REV.    JUSTIN    EDWARDS,    D.  D. 


PUBLISHED    BY   THE 

AMERICAN   TRACT   SOCIETY, 

15(1   NASS  A0-STREET.   NEW-YORK. 


CONTENTS. 


/.  Origin  and  catcse  of  intoxication,       ...       7 
Origin  and  nature  of  alcohol,  .         .  7 

Correction  of  an  error,  ....       8 

Ways  in  which  alcohol  may  be  extracted,  9 

A  great  deception, 10 

Medical  use  of  alcohol,  .        .         .         11 

Its  introduction  into  the  mines  and  the  army,     12 
Its  general  use  and  effects,  .  •         .12 

Testimony  of  an  old  man,        ...  14 

The  sermon  that  was  preached,  .         .        .14 
The  measures  that  were  taken,        .        .  14 

A  rousing  sermon,  .         .         .         .15 

IL  Change  of  opinion,  and  efforts,     .        ,  15 

Society  formed  in  1826,       .         .         .  .17 

Testimony  of  reformed  drunkards  in  1834,  18 

The  way  to  cure  all  drunkenness,    .         .  19 

A  great  question,  and  its  answer,          .  20 

Illustration  by  facts,        .         .         .         .  21 

UL   The  process  by  which  alcohol  deceives  men,      .     25 
Reasons  why  drinkers  of  alcohol  increase  the 

quantity,  .         «         .         .         .  26 


4  •  CONTENTS. 

Paga. 

Peculiarity  of  the  alcoholic  appetite,  28 

Illustration  by  facts, 29 

Violation  of  moral  law,   ....  30 

Difference  between  immediate  and  ultimate 

effects,          ......  31 

Medical  testimony,          .        .        .         .  31 

IV.  The  iirocess  by  which  alcohol  ccmses  deaths      .  33 

Alcohol  in  the  stomach,  heart,  brain,  &c.  33 

Effects  of  giving  it  to  children,    .         .         »  38 

Hereditary  predisposition  to  disease,         .  39 
History  of  eight  families,      .         .         .         .41 

V.  A  great  principle, 44 

Influence  of  alcohol  on  digestion,  .  ,  45 
Its  course  around  the  body,  ...  45 
Organs  for  the  supp]y  of  nourishment,  .  45 
Organs  for  the  removal  of  nuisances,  .  50 
Importance  of  cleanliness,  .  .  .  .52 
Influence  of  poison,  ....  52 
Manner  of  treatment  by  different  sets  of  or- 
gans,      52 

Its  effects  on  them,          ....  54 

Testimony  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  phy- 
sicians,         .         .         .         .         .         .  .  57 

Sudden  deaths,  and  deaths  by  cold  water,  59 

Deaths  by  cholera, 60 

Effects  of  alcohol  on  the  muscles,  nerves, 

and  on  the  mind,       .        .        .        ,64 


CONTENTS.  5 

"age. 

Illustrations  by  facts,  witli  regard  to  crimes,  66 

Immorality  of  the  traffic  in  spirits,           .  73 

Opinion  of  Chief  Justice  C ranch,         .         .  73 

VL  Ohjections  stated  and  answered,          .        .  74 

A  principle  in  law, 75 

Effects  of  the  liquor  traffic  on  its  authors,  77 

The  guilt  of  selling  alcohol  to  sober  men,      •  78 
Having  a  license  does  not  make  it  right  to 

sell, 81 

Not  necessary,  in  order  to  support  a  family,  82 

Appalling  consequences,           ...  83 

No  excuse  that  alcohol  is  drunk  voluntarily,  84 

The  cases  of  two  men,    ....  85 
Light  increases  responsibility,      .         .         .86 

Influence  for  evil  extensive  and  eternal,   .  87 

Death-bed  retrospection  and  prospect,          .  89 
1* 


TEMPERANCE  MANUAL. 


I.  Ever  since  man  turned  away  from  God  as  a 
source  of  enjoyment,  and  from  his  service  as  a 
means  of  obtaining  it,  lie  lias  been  prone  to  seek 
it  in  some  improper  bodily  or  mental  gratification. 
Of  all  those  gratifications  to  which  he  has  resorted 
for  this  purpose,  few,  if  any,  have  been  more  des- 
tructive to  him  than  that  which  results  from  the  use 
as  a  beverage,  r^f  intoxicating  liquor.  Though  it 
affords  a  momentary  gratification,  at  the  last  it  bites 
like  a  serpent  and  stings  like  an  adder.  It  tends 
to  form  an  artificial,  unnecessary,  and  dangerous 
appetite,  and  thus  to  lead  to  drunkenness  and  ruin. 

That  incQ-edient  in  fermented  and  distilled  li- 
quors  which  is  the  cause  of  intoxication,  is  not 
the  product  of  creation.  The  animal  kingdo:n,  in 
all  its  vast  variety,  saith,  "  It  is  not  in  me;"  and  the 
vegetable  kingdom  responds,  "  It  is  not  in  me." 
Those  substances,  however,  which  contain,  or  will 


8  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

produce  sugar,  after  they  are  dead  and  become 
subject  to  laws  which  operate  on  inanimated  matter, 
undergo  a  process  which  chemists  call  vinous  fermen- 
tation. By  this  process  a  new  substance  is  formed, 
called  Alcohol.  It  is  composed  of  hydrogen,  car- 
bon and  oxygen,  in  the  proportion  of  about  thirteen, 
fifty-two,  and  -  thirty-five  parts  to  the  hundred. 
It  is  in  its  nature,  as  manifested  in  its  effects,  a 
subtle  and  diffusive  'poison.  The  elements,  by  the 
combination  of  which  this  substance  is  formed,  ex- 
isted before ;  but  the  substance  itself  which  that 
combination  forms,  did  not  before  exist.  It  is  the 
product  solely  of  vinous  fermentation,  and  is  as 
really  different  from  vv^hat  existed  before  in  the 
fruits  or  the  grains,  as  the  poisonous  miasma  is 
different  from  the  vegetables  from  the  decompo- 
sition and  decay  of  w^hicli  it  springs.  It  is  as  dif- 
ferent as  poison  is  from  food,  sickness  from  health, 
or  drunkenness  from  sobriety. 

Hence  it  no  more  follows,  because  fruits  and 
grains  are  nourishing  to  the  human  system,  that 
therefore  alcohol  is  nourishing,  than  it  follows, 
because  vegetables  are  nourishing,  that  therefore 
poisonous  miasma,  which  the  decay  of  those  sub- 
stances produces,  is  nourishing.  The  one  does  not 
follow  from  the  other.  They  are  as  really  differ- 
ent in  their  natures  as  life  is  from  death.  That 
difference  is  caused  by  the  different  combination 
which  is  formed  by  fermentation. 

To  conclude  therefore,  because  one  is  good  as 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  9 

an  article  of  diet,  that  therefore  the  other  must  be' 
good,  is  as  really  unphilosophical  and  false,  as  it 
would  be  to  conclude,  because  potatoes  are  good 
as  an  article  of  food,  that  therefore  the  soil  out  of 
which  they  grow  is  good  for  the  same  purpose. 
But  there  is  no  such  likeness  between  them  as  to 
lay  the  foundation  for  any  such  conclusions. 

We  are  the  more  particular  on  this  point,  be- 
cause there  is  much  error  with  regard  to  it  in  the 
public  mind.  Many  suppose  that  alcohol  exists  in 
all  the  vegetable  substances  whose  fermentation, 
after  death,  will  produce  it.  This  is  an  entire 
mistake.  Not  a  particle  of  it  is  to  be  found,  ex- 
cept through  the  influence  of  vinous  fermentation. 

After  it  is  formed  it  may  be  extracted,  or  se- 
parated from  fermented  liquors  in  three  ways. 

One  is,  to  place  the  liquor  under  a  receiver,  ex- 
haust the  air ;  and  at  a  temperature  of  about  se- 
venty degress,  the  Alcohol,  being  lighter  and  more 
volatile  than  the  other  parts,  will  rise  to  the  top, 
and  may  thus  be  obtained. 

Another  way  is,  to  precipitate  the  mucilaginous 
parts,  the  acid  and  the  coloring  matter,  by  means  of 
the  subacetate  or  sugar  of  lead ;  then  take  off  the  wa- 
ter that  remains  by  meansof  the  subcarbonate  of  po- 
tassa,  or  pearl-ashes,  when  the  Alcohol  will  remain. 

The  other  way  is  by  the  application  of  heat, 
and  then  of  cold,  as  in  common  distillation.  This 
is  the  ordinary  method.  The  art  of  distillation 
has  been  thought  by  some  to  have  been  known 


10  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

in  China  earlier  than  in  other  parts  of  the  wo/ld. 
(See  Morehead  on  inebriating  liquors,  p.  107,  &c.) 
But  we  have  no  conclusive  evidence  that  Alco- 
hol was  extracted  from  fermented  liquors  till  it 
was  done  by  the  Arabians,  about  nine  hundied 
years  ago.  When  they  first  obtained  it  they  had  no 
name  for  it.  It  was  afterward  called  Alcohol;  and 
that  has  been  its  chemical  name  down  to  this  day. 

Alcohol,  in  the  Arabic  language,  was  a  fine  im- 
palpable powder,  with  which  the  women  used  to 
paint  their  faces  in  order  to  increase  their  beauty. 
Perhaps  after  using  it,  they  thought  they  really 
were  more  beautiful  than  they  were  before.  Men, 
when  drunk  with  Alcohol,  have  often  thought  they 
were  more  beautiful,  or  rich,  or  strong,  or  in  some 
respects  better  than  they  were  before.  But  they 
were  deceived,  utterly  deceived.  Yet  that  decep- 
tion has  been  so  powerful  and  complete,  that  mul- 
titudes, vast  multitudes,  in  all  ages,  have  lived  and 
died  under  its  power.  The  reason  is,  that  Alco- 
hol, in  its  nature,  is  **  a  mocker."  It  is  also  "  rag- 
ing." He  who  is  deceived  thereby,  as  is  the  man 
who  thinks  that,  as  a  beverage,  it  does  him  good, 
*'  is  not  wise."  It  tends  to  injure  his  body  and 
his  soul ;  to  make  him  "  earthly,  sensual,  devilish." 
That  is  a  reason  why  men  should  not  drink  it. 

It  does  not  appear  that  any  one  at  first  ima- 
gined that  the  time  would  ever  come  v*'hen  men 
would  extract  Alcohol  to  be  used  as  a  drink. 

Amoldus  de  Villa,  a  physician,  who,  in  the  thir- 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  11 

teenth  century,  lived  in  the  South  of  Europe,  is, 
so  far  as  known,  the  first  whose  opinion  is  record- 
ed, who  recommended  it,  even  as  a  medicine.  Un- 
der his  influence,  however,  and  that  of  his  dis- 
ciple, Raymond  Lully,  who  was  born  in  Majorca 
in  1236,  and  who  died  in  1315,  its  medical  use 
increased  and  extended,  till  it  finally  spread  over 
a  gi'eat  part  of  Europe.  Judging  from  its  imme- 
diate effects,  it  was  thought  to  increase  life.  Hence 
it  was  called  Aqua  vitae,  or  water  of  life.  Had  it 
been  named  according:  to  its  real  nature  and  ulti- 
mate  effects,  it  would  have  been  called  Ac[2ca  moi'- 
tis,  water  of  death,  temporal  and  eternal. 

Yet  so  powerful  was  its  influence  to  deceive 
men,  and  make  them  call  evil  good,  that  Theori- 
cus,  as  stated  in  Holinshed's  Chronicles,  wrote,  in 
the  sixteenth  century,  a  treatise  upon  its  wonder- 
fully sanative  power.  He  says,  "  It  sloweth  age  ; 
it  strengtheneth  youth ;  it  helpeth  digestion ;  it 
cutteth  flegme  ;  it  abandoneth  melancholie  ;  it  re- 
lisheth  the  heart ;  it  lighteneth  the  mind ;  it  quick- 
eneth  the  spirits ;  it  cureth  the  hydropsie  ;  it  heal- 
eth  the  strangurie ;  it  pounceth  the  stone ;  it  ex- 
pelleth  the  gravell ;  it  puffeth  away  ventositie ;  it 
keepeth  and  preserveth  the  head  from  whirling, 
the  eyes  from  dazzling,  the  tong  from  lisping,  the 
mouth  from  snaffling,  the  teeth  from  chattering, 
and  the  throat  from  rattling ;  it  keepeth  the  wea- 
son  from  stiffling,  the  stomach  from  wambling,  and 
the  heart  from  swelling ;  it  keei^eth  the  hands  from 


12  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

shivering,  the  sinews  from  shrinking,  the  veins 
from  crumbling,  the  bones  from  aching,  and  the 
marrow  from  soaking." 

Thus  it  was  thought  to  be  a  remedy  for  almost 
all  diseases,  and  many  began  to  think  that  it  would 
not  only  cure  diseases,  but  prevent  them.  They 
therefore  took  it,  not  only  in  sickness,  but  in 
health.  Ulstadius  ascribed  to  it  this  peculiar  vir- 
tue :  viz.  **It  will  burn,  being  kindled."  It  pro- 
duced a  burning  sensation,  and  men  took  it  to 
keep  them  warm.  It  quickly  evaporated,  and  thus 
absorbed  heat,  and  they  took  it  to  keep  them  cool. 
To  guard  against  the  evils  of  working  under 
ground,  they  introduced  it  into  the  mines ;  and 
the  English,  during  their  wars  in  the  Netherlands, 
furnished  it  to  their  soldiers  to  guard  them  from 
the  dangers  arising  from  the  dampness  and  fogs  of 
the  low  countries.  The  soldiers  formed  the  habit 
of  using  it ;  and  at  the  close  of  the  war  brought 
the  appetite  for  it  with  them  to  England.  The  use 
of  it  increased,  extended,  and  has  continued  to  in- 
crease and  extend,  till  as  stated  by  a  British  writer, 
**  From  that  little  cloud,  no  bigger  than  a  man's 
hand,  has  been  evolved  that  mighty  mass  which 
is  now  suspended  over  our  country,  and  which 
is  pouring  its  fiery  streams  through  all  the  cur 
rents  of  public  and  domestic  intercourse."  Similar 
has  been  its  course  in  other  countries,  and  similar 
its  effects. 

Says  a  medical  writer,  "  The  disease  occasion- 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  13 

ed  by  it  has  been  by  far  more  destructive  than 
any  other  plague  that  ever  raged  in  Christendom; 
more  malignant  than  any  other  epidemic  pesti- 
lence that  ever  desolated  our  suffering  race, 
vvhether  in  the  shape  of  the  burning  typhus,  the 
loathsome  small-pox,  the  cholera  of  t^e  East,  or 
the  yellow  fever  of  the  West;  a  disease  more 
loathsome  and  destructive  than  all  of  them  put 
toG:ether." 

Similar  has  been  its  influence  among  all  nations 
that  have  used  it  as  a  beverage,  whether  in  fer- 
mented or  distilled  liquors,  in  all  ages  of  the 
world.  Without  one  redeeming  quality,  it  has 
been  among  the  most  constant  and  fruitful  sources 
of  all  their  woes.  Yet  such  has  been  its  power  to 
deceive  men,  that  while  evil  after  evil  has  rolled 
in  upon  them,  like  the  waves  of  the  sea,  they  have 
continued  till  within  a  few  years  knowingly  and 
voluntarily  to  increase  the  cause.  This  has  been 
a  deception  among  the  most  entire  and  fatal  that 
has  ever  cursed  our  fallen  race. 

Some  few  and  feeble  efforts  at  different  times 
were  made  by  various  individuals  to  lessen  the 
evils,  but  they  continued  to  increase,  till  many, 
in  view  of  them,  sank  down  in  despair.  Fathers 
died  drunkards,  their  widows  procured  liquors, 
and  their  children  became  intoxicated  at  their  fu- 
nerals. Good  men  stood  aghast,  and  then  drank 
the  poison  :  lamenting  its  evils,  and  setting  exam- 
ples which  tended  for  ever  to  perpetuate  them. 

2 


14i  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

An  old  man,  as  he  poured  out  his  glass  of 
brandy,  put  in  the  sugar,  and  began  to  stir  it  up, 
while  his  mouth  was  watering  for  the  liquor,  said 
to  his  friend,  "  What  are  we  coming  to  1  If  we 
continue  this  course  we  shall  soon  be  a  nation  of 
drunkards.'*'  He  then  drank  the  liquor,  without 
suspecting  that  he  was  among' the  authors  of  the 
mischief.  That,  in  his  view,  resulted  from  drink- 
ing ''too  mucJi,;"  whereas  he  drank  only  "just 
enougJi."  "■  Strange,"  said  another  man,  "  that  peo- 
ple should'nt  know  when  they  have  got  enough, 
but  will  go  on  and  make  fools  of  themselves." 

Temperance  Societies  were  formed,  the  avowed 
object  of  which  was  to  keep  people  from  drink- 
ing*  too  much.  A  sermon  was  once  preached  be- 
fore one  of  those  societies,  and  was  afterwards 
published.  An  old  man,  who  had  read  it,  was 
asked  what  he  thought  of  it  %  He  answered,  '*  I 
should  think,  from  that  sermon,  that  intempe- 
rance, carried  to  excess,  is  a  bad  thing."  So  many 
thought,  especially  if  carried  to  excess  by  the 
young.  It  caused  apprehensions  that  mischief 
would  come  upon  them  in  future  life.  But  the 
apprehension  arose,  not  fi-om  the  nature  of  the 
liquor,  but  from  the  quantity  that  might  be  used. 
The  parent  furnished  it,  drank  himself,  and  gave 
it  to  his  child,  cautioning  him  not  to  take  too  much. 
Men  were  selected  and  licensed  to  sell  it  for  the 
public  good.  They  sold  it,  made  drunkards,  and, 
when  they  died,  helped  to  bury  them ;  then  took 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  15 

their  property  for  rum  debts,  and  sent  tlieir  chil- 
dren to  the  ahnshouse  to  be  supported  by  the 
public.  Ministers  preached  against  drunkenness, 
and  drank  the  drunkard's  poison  :  thus  setting  an 
example  which  their  hearers  loved  to  follow.  One 
man,  after  hearing  on  the  Sabbath  a  rousing  ser- 
mon against  drunkenness,  during  the  intermission 
which  he  spent  at  the  tavern  opposite  the  church, 
and  while  stirring  his  glass  of  liquor,  said,  "  We 
have  had  an  excellent  sermon  to-day.  To  drink 
as  some  people  do  is  abominable.  They  ought  to 
be  preached  against.  But  to  take  a  little  now  and 
then,"  as  he  had  often  done,  and  was  then  prepar- 
ing to  do,  "  I  think  does  a  man  good."  He  then 
showed  his  sincerity  by  his  actions.  Other  men 
thought  the  same :  while  in  many  places  more 
than  one  in  ten  that  di^ank  it  went  down  to  the 
drunkard's  grave ;  and  more  than  three-fourths  of 
all  the  pauperism,  crime,  and  wretchedness  of  the 
conmiunity  was  occasioned  by  the  use  of  it. 

II.  Between  the  years  1820  and  1826  numbers 
became  more  deeply  impressed  than  before  with 
the  idea,  that  if  drunkenness  is  ever  to  be  done 
away,  a  new  principle  must  be  adopted  with  re- 
gai'd  to  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquor :  that  men 
must  abstain,  not  only  from  what  they  called  the 
abuse,  but  from  the  use,  as  a  beverage,  of  that 
which  intoxicates ;  and  that  this  is  required  by 
otie  of  the  first  principles  of  moral  duty. 


16  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

Facts  were  collected  and  embodied,  designed 
and  adapted  to  show  that  the  use,  as  a  beverage,  of 
intoxicating  liquor  is  wicked,  for  two  reasons,  viz. — 

1.  The  facts  show  that  men  loho  do  not  use  them 
are  as  well  as  men  that  do,  and  are  as  thoroughly 
fitted  for  evei'y  good  work. 

2.  The  facts  also  show,  that  such  is  the  nature 
of  those  liquors,  and  such  the  nature  of  man,  that 
he  cannot  continue  to  use  them,  as  an  ordinary  be- 
verage, without  in  many  cases  forming  intemperate 
appetites  and  habits,  and  leading  down  to  drunk 
enness  aiid  ruin. 

Of  course  it  is  morally  wrong  to  use  them.  Let 
the  use  of  them  cease,  and  men,  as  a  body,  will 
enjoy  better  health.  They  can  perform  more  la 
bor;  they  will  live  longer;  and  all  the  drunken- 
ness of  the  world  will  be  done  away.  These  facts 
were  published  from  the  pulpit  and  the  press  ; 
and  with  the  Divine  blessing,  carried  conviction 
to  many  minds.  Numbers  discontinued  the  use 
of  those  liquors,  and  found  themselves  to  be  bet- 
ter than  they  were  before.  As  the  principles  and 
the  facts  which  illustrate  them  became  more  and 
more  known,  that  number  increased ;  and  it  has 
continued  to  increase  down  to  the  present  day. 
Millions,  of  all  ages,  in  various  countries,  and  in 
all  kinds  of  lawful  employments,  have  ceased  to 
use,  as  a  beverage,  any  thing  which  intoxicates. 
The  reason  is  that  which  was  expressed  in  the 
preamble  of  the   constitution  of  a    Temperan(5e 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  17 

Society  which  was  formed  in  September,  1826 ; 
and  which  consisted  of  one  hundred  and  ninety 
eight  young  men  :   viz. 

"  Believing  that  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors  is 
for  persons  in  health,  not  only  unnecessary,  hut 
hurtful ;  that  it  is  the  tause  of  forming  intem- 
jjcrate  appetites  and  habits,  and  that  ichile  it  is 
continued  the  evils  of  intemperance  can  never  he 
preveMedy — 

Therefore,  in  order  to  prevent  those  evils,  and 
for  the  purpose  of  promoting  their  own  good  and 
the  fjood  of  others,  vast  multitudes  of  all  ao^es  and 
in  various  countries  have  ceased  to  use  intoxicat- 
ing liquors.  The  number  that  now  abstain  from 
the  use  of  them  is  supposed  to  exceed  twelve  mil- 
lions. It  is  not  known  that  any  of  them  have,  in 
the  end,  suffered  any  real  harm.  As  a  body  they 
appear  to  themselves  and  to  others  to  have  been 
benefitted.  And  while  continuing  that  course, 
not  a  drunkard  has  ever  been  found  among  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  multitudes,  who  before  were 
notorious  drunkards,  and  sources  of  untold  wretch- 
edness to  themselves  and  others,  have  become 
perfectly  sober  men.  Many  of  them  have  becofne 
industrious,  useful,  pious  men,  and  sources  of  hap- 
piness to  all  around  them. 

In  1S34,  one  of  these  men,  in  a  public  meeting 
said,  "  I  stand  before  you  a  person  who  was  a 
diunkard  upwards  of  twenty  years.  I  drank  to 
such  excess  that  I  could  scarcely  hold  the  glass 

2* 


IS  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

to  my  mouth.  I  was  destroying  my  health,  had 
hardly  a  chair,  or  a  bed  to  lie  down  upon,  and 
was  making  every  body  miserable  around  me.  It 
is  now  eighteen  months  since  I  have  tasted  any  in- 
toxicating liquor,  and  I  have  laid  out  in  my  house 
and  furniture  above  tweYity  pounds.  I  never  en- 
joyed so  good  a  state  of  health.  We  have  food,  rai- 
ment, contentment,  and  every  thing  comfortable." 

Said  another,  "  When  I  go  through  the  streets 
on  Sunday,  it  does  my  soul  good  to  meet  so  many 
reformed  drunkards,  well  dressed,  and  going  to 
places  of  public  worship.  What  fools  you  are  to 
cover  the  landlord's  tables,  while  you  yourselves 
must  live  on  potatoes  and  salt :  your  children 
barefooted  and  bareheaded,  your  coats  out  at  the 
elbows,  and  your  trowsers  out  at  the  knees,  as 
mine  used  to  be.  I  called  the  temperance  people 
fools.  But  I  found  that  I  was  the  fool,  and  that 
they  were  wise  men.  I  am  now  strong  and  hearty, 
can  do  my  work  better  than  ever,  and  am  deter- 
mined to  go  about,  preaching  temperance  as  long 
as  I  live." 

Scores  of  others  gave  a  similar  testimony.  In 
December,  1834,  thirty  mechanics,  who  had  bjeen 
drunkards,  and  who  had  ceased  to  use  intoxi- 
cating drinks,  sent  out  through  the  press  to 
those  who  were  still  drunkards,  the  following 
address,  viz. 

*'  Friends, — You  are  miserable  and  wretched, 
in  body,  in  soul,  and  circumstances.    Your  fami- 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  19 

lies  and  friends  are  suffering  through  your  folly. 
You  have  no  peace  here,  and  you  can  have  no 
peace  hereafter.  All  this  proceeds  from  the  de- 
lusive maddening  habit  of  using  intoxicating 
liquors.  You  are  told  that  these  liquors  do  you 
good.  It  is  a  falsehoody  invented  and  propagated  ^ 
for  the  purpose  of  getting  your  money.  Judge  of 
the  good  they  have  done  by  the  effects  which  they 
have  produced  upon. yourselves  and  others.  Shun 
the  public  house  as  you  w^ould  a  plague,  and  the 
company  of  drunkards  as  you  would  a  gang  of 
robbers. 

*'  Friends,  we  were  once  drunkards,  and  most  of 
us  were  in  the  same  wretched  condition  with  your- 
selves. We  are  now  happy  ;  our  wives  are  com- 
fortable ;  our  children  are  provided  for  ;  we  are 
in  better  health,  and  better  in  circumstances  ;  we 
have  peace  of  mind  ;  and  no  tongue  can  tell  the 
comforts  we  have  enjoyed  since  we  became  con- 
sistent members  of  the  Temperance  Society. 

**  While  we  refuse  no  kind  of  food  or  drink 
that  God  hath  sent,  we  abstain  from  all  diluted  poi- 
son^ manufactured  to  ruin  mankind  and  rob  our 
country  of  its  greatness.  We  have  seen  our  de- 
lusion, and  we  now  drink  neither  ale,  wine,  gin, 
rum,  brandy,  nor  any  kind  of  intoxicating  liquor. 
There  is  no  safety  for  you  nor  for  us,  but  in  giving 
it  up  entirely.  Come  then,  ye  drunkards,  attend 
our  meetings,  be  resolved  to  cast  off  the  fetters  of 
intemperance,  and  for  ever  determine  to  be  free." 


20  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

Thousands,  and  hundreds  of  thousands,  have 
since  become  free,  and  not  a  few  of  them  are  now 
free  indeed.  Vast  multitudes  more,  who  never 
were  drunkards,  as  long  as  they  continue  their 
present  course  will  be  free  from  the  danger  of 
becoming  such.  None  who  follow  their  example 
will  ever  form  the  drunkard's  appetite,  or  meet  the 
drunkard's  doom.  Let  all  adopt  and  pursue  the 
same  course,  and  drunkenness  with  all  its  abomi- 
nations will  for  ever  cease,  and  temperance,  with 
its  attendant  benefits  to  the  body  and  the  soul, 
for  time  and  eternity,  will  universally  prevail. 

Here  a  question  arises  :  viz.  Why  do  not  all 
persons  wlio  know  the  facts  abstain  from  the  use 
of  intoxicating  drinks  ?  As  the  facts  show  that  all 
men  would  be  better  without  them  ;  as  millions 
have  tried  it  and  can  testify  from  their  own  expe- 
rience ;  as  their  testimony  is  uniform  and  conclu- 
sive ;  why  does  it  not  carry  conviction  to  every 
individual,  and  control  their  conduct  1  How  many 
witnesses  are  wanted  in  a  court  of  justice  to  prove 
a  case,  even  of  life  or  death  ]  more  than  a  mil- 
lion good  men  and  true,  who  can  testify  from  their 
own  personal  knowledge  %  No.  A  thousandth 
part  of  that  number  would  settle  any  question. 
Why  does  it  not  settle  this  question  ]  Why  do 
not  all  believe  that  they  would  be  better  should 
they  abstain  entirely  from  the  use,  as  a  beverage, 
of  all  intoxicating  liquor  1  If  they  did  not  use  it 
they  would  believe  this.    But  unhappily  some  still 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  21 

continue  to  use  it ;  and  in  proportion  as  they  use 
it,  and  thus  come  under  its  power,  they  are  de- 
ceived. It  is  in  its  nature  **  a  mocker,"  and  the 
effect  which  it  has  on  them  in  making  them  think 
it  does  them  good,  is  a  proof  of  it.  Some  indeed 
drink  it  because  they  love  it,  or  love  the  excite- 
ment which  it  occasions,  or  because  other  people 
drink  it,  though  they  know  it  does  them  hurt.  Of 
such  we  are  not  now  speaking ;  but  of  those  who 
still  think,  as  most  men  once  did,  that  a  little  does 
them  good,  and  take  it  when  it  really  does  them 
harm.  What  is  the  ground  of  that  deception  ] 
Why  do  they  call  evil,  good  1  It  is  on  account  of 
ts  i?nmediate  effect. 

Sometimes  men  take  Alcohol  to  drown  present 
corrow.  A  man  lost  his  wife,  the  mother  of  his 
children,  and  he  was  in  great  distress.  He  took 
Alcohol,  and  under  its  influence  gi'ew  cheerful, 
and  seemed  full  of  mirth.  He  seized  the  dead 
body  of  his  wife,  and  in  high  glee  dragged  her 
across  the  room  by  the  hair  of  her  head,  and 
threw  her  into  the  coffin.  But  "  the  end  of 
that  mirth  is  heaviness,''^  and  the  soitow  that 
worketh  death. 

Sometimes  it  makes  men  feel  rich.  A  rich  man 
in  a  country  town  had  often  gone  to  a  poor  neigh- 
bor of  his  who  was  greatly  injuring  himself  and 
hifl  family  by  drinking  Alcohol,  and  entreated  him 
to  give  it  up,  but  he  would  not.  At  last  an  op- 
portunity offered  in  which  the  rich  man  thought 


22  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

that  he  should  certainly  succeed.  They  were  both 
at  a  temperance  meeting.  The  speaker  showed 
with  great  clearness,  and  from  numerous  facts, 
selected  and  arranged  with  care,  that  the  drink- 
ing of  Alcohol  is  not  only  needless,  but  hurt- 
ful :  that  men  who  do  not  drink  it  can  do  more 
work,  and  in  a  better  manner,  than  those  who  do : 
that  they  enjoy  better  health,  live  longer,  and  are 
much  more  useful  and  happy.  After  the  meeting 
the  rich  man  went  again  to  the  poor  man,  and  in 
view  of  the  facts,  which  to  his  own  mind  were 
perfectly  conclusive  and  indeed  irresistible,  urged 
him  to  give  it  up.  The  poor  man  replied,  "  If  I 
were  a  rich  man  like  you,  I  would.  You  are  a 
rich  man,  you  know  you  are  rich,  and  have  mo- 
ney enough.  But  I  am  a  poor  man.  Nobody 
likes  always  to  feel  poor,  and  when  a  man  has 
taken  a  little  he  feels  five  hundred  dollars  richer 
than  he  did  before."  But  is  he  any  richer,  or  is 
it  all  delusion  1  Delusion,  utter  delusion  ;  but  no 
more  a  delusion  than  he  experiences  who  drinks 
and  thinks  he  is  healthier  or  in  any  respect  bet- 
ter. It  is  all  delusion,  and  a  perfect  demonstra- 
tion of  the  truth  that  strong  drink  is  "  a  mocker." 
Auctioneers,  merchants,  and  others,  knowing 
its  nature,  have  often  been  in  the  habit  of  furnish- 
ing it  to  their  customers,  gratis,  on  purpose  to 
make  them  feel  more  rich,  and  thus  induce  them 
to  purchase  more  goods  and  at  a  higher  price 
than  they  otherwise  would,  and  thus   cheat  them 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  23 

out  of  their  money.  Not  unfrequently  they  have 
succeeded,  and  obtained  ten  times  as  much  as  the 
cost  of  the  hquor  which  they  furnished.  But  is  it 
right  1  No :  it  is  wrong,  morally  wrong,  and  stamps 
on  the  man  who  does  it,  the  guilt  of  a  swindler. 

A  lawyer  who  knew  that  it  was  wrong  to  fur- 
nish intoxicating  liquor,  was  about  to  sell  at  auc- 
tion the  wood  that  was  standing  on  a  certani  lot 
which  he  owned,  at  a  distance  from  the  town. 
He  told  the  auctioneer  not  to  furnish  any  spirit; 
but  to  furnish  food  and  such  drink  as  would  not 
injure  those  who  should  attend  the  sale.  The 
auctioneer  said,  that  if  he  insisted  upon  it,  he 
would  follow  his  directions.  "  But,"  he  added, 
"  depend  upon  it  you  will  lose  a  great  deal  of 
money.  I  know  how  it  works.  After  men  have 
been  drinking  the  trees  look  a  great  deal  larger 
than  they  did  before."  But  are  they  any  larger  % 
Sometimes  they  seem  to  see  two  trees,  where  be- 
fore there  was  but  one.  But  are  there  any  more 
trees,  or  is  it  all  deception  %  Sheer  deception.  And 
is  it  right  thus  to  deceive  men  in  order  to  get 
their  money  ] 

A  number  of  gentlemen  assembled  to  consult 
upon  the  value  of  certain  lots  of  land  that  were 
to  be  offered  at  public  sale.  After  due  inquiry 
and  considei-ation,  they  concluded  unanimously 
that  the  lots  ^ere  not  worth  more  than  a  certain 
specified  sum,  and  thnt  'hey  would  none  of  thera 
bid  more.     The  sale  was  opened,  and  no  man  bid 


24  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

higher  than  the  sum  which  had  been  named.  The 
owner  would  not  sell  at  that  price,  and  stopped 
the  sale.  It  being  cold  he  invited  them  to  go  in 
and  warm.  While  the  fire  was  warming  them 
without,  he  prepared  some  Alcohol  in  a  very  pa- 
latable manner  to  warm  them  within.  He  offered 
it  gratis,  and  they  drank  freely.  When  he  thought 
that  they  were  warm  enough,  he  again  opened 
the  sale.  One  of  those  men,  as  he  himself  told 
the  writer,  felt  so  much  richer,  and  the  land  ap- 
peared to  be  worth  so  much  more,  that  he  ac- 
tually bid  and  gave  for  a  lot  four  times  as  much 
as  he,  or  any  of  those  men,  when  not  poisoned, 
thought  the  land  to  be  worth.  Is  it  wise  for  a 
man  to  consent  to  be  thus  deceived  and  robbed 
of  his  money  ]  Horse  jockeys,  gamblers,  thieves, 
highway  robbers  and  murderers  furnish  Alcohol 
on  purpose  to  delude,  in  order  that  they  may 
defraud,  corrupt,  and  destroy  those  who  come 
under  its  power.  Long  has  it  been,  and  it  is  now 
known  to  be  one  of  the  grand  instruments  of  Satan, 
through  the  agency  of  his  servants,  to  accomplish 
his  designs.  Yet,  notwithstanding  all  this,  multi- 
tudes are  still  making  it,  or  furnishing  materials 
for  that  purpose.  Some  are  importing  it :  others 
are  selling  it,  or  renting  buildings  to  be  used 
for  the  sale  of  it.  Many  are  still  drinking  it,  and 
not  a  few  under  the  delusive  idea  that  it  does 
them  good. 

Why  do  men,  who  drink  it  and  are  greatly  in- 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  25 

jurcd  hy  it,,  think  tliat  it  does  tliem  good  1  And 
tvhy  do  they  so  often  increase  the  quantity,  till, 
unless  cut  off  suddenly,  they  go  down  to  the 
drunkard's  gravel 

These  questions  we  shall  briefly  answer,  and 
also  show  the  process  by  which  Alcohol  causes 
sickness,  insanity,  and  premature  death. 

III.  Such  is  the  nature  of  Alcohol,  that  when 
taken  into  the  stomach,  its  first  effect  is  irritation 
and  an  increase  of  action,  a  quickening  of  the 
circulation,  producing  animation  and  excitement. 
That  excitement,  by  a  law  of  nature,  is  a  source 
of  present  pleasure,  and  many  mistake  this  plea- 
sure for  real  good.  It  arouses  also  for  a  moment 
the  dormant  energies  of  the  system,  which  were 
not  designed,  and  are  not  needed  for  ordinary 
healthful  action,  but  only  for  special  emergencies, 
and  which  cannot  be  awakened  on  ordinary  occa- 
sions without  diminishing  their  power  and  short- 
ening their  duration.  This  arousing  of  dormant 
energy  men  mistake  for  an  increase  of  strength. 

The  commission  of  sin  sometimes  gives  pre- 
sent pleasure.  Is  it  therefore  a  real  good  ]  The 
delirium  of  a  fever  sometimes  awakens  dormant 
energy,  and  the  man  who  before  could  hardly 
raise  a  finger,  now  assumes  the  power  of  a  giant. 
Are  delirium,  and  fever,  therefore,  the  sources  of 
real  strenQ:th  1  The  man  who  thinks  so  is  mis- 
taken ;   but  no  more  mistaken  than  is  the  man 

3 


25  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

who  ascribes  such  increase  of  strength  to  Alcohol. 

The  eating  of  the  fruit  which  God,  on  pain  of 
death,  had  forbidden,  may  have  afforded  a  mo- 
mentary gratification.  But  he  who  thinks  that 
eating  the  forbidden  fi'uit  was,  or  that  sin  ever  is, 
a  real  good,  or  that  it  is  wise  to  commit  it,  is  en- 
tirely mistaken.  He  calls  evil  good,  as  does  the 
man  who  drinks  Alchohol,  under  the  deception 
which  the  practice  of  evil  occasions.  No  man  in 
the  practice  of  evil,  and  while  under  its  power,  will 
judge  correctly  concerning  its  nature  and  effects. 

The  falling  of  a  child  into  a  river,  or  its  expo- 
sure to  be  consumed  in  a  house  on  fire,  may 
awaken  in  a  mother,  for  a  moment,  almost  the 
strength  of  Hercules  for  its  rescue.  But  is  it  a 
source  of  real  and  permanent  strength  ?  And  if 
repeated,  daily,  will  it  prolong  life  1  He  who 
thinks  so,  is  deluded.  So  with  the  drinking  of 
spirituous  liquors.  Whatever  present  appear- 
ances may  be,  the  ultimate  effect  is  weakness,  not. 
strength ;  sickness,  not  health  :  death,  and  not 
life.  Yet,  as  it  gives  present  pleasure,  and  some- 
times appears  to  increase  health,  strength,  riches, 
or  some  other  desirable  thing,  a  motive  is  thereby 
created  to  drink  it.  In  view  of  that  motive,  and 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  fancied  good, 
many  do  drink  it.  By  its  use  they  form  an  appe- 
tite for  it ;  and  to  gratify  that  appetite  continue  to 
drink  till  they  die. 

But  why  do  they  increase  the  quantity  1    What 


TEMPERANCE     MANUAL.  27 

is  the  temptation  to  do  that  1  The  system  having 
been  poisoned,  becomes  in  some  measure  deranged. 
Too  much  excitement  of  the  organs  and  too  in- 
tense action,  without  additional  strength,  produces 
weakness,  and  causes  a  sensation  of  exhaustion. 
That  by  a  law  of  nature,  causes  pain.  An  inex- 
pressible uneasiness  pervades  the  system,  which 
is  the  voice  of  nature  crying  out  for  help,  under 
the  abuse  which  she  has  suffered.  A  man  cannot 
thus  irritate  and  chafe  his  orsrans  without  subse- 
quent  languor,  any  more  than  he  can  put  his  hand 
in  the  fire  and  not  be  burnt.  He  violates  a  law ; 
that  law  has  a  penalty  ;  and  the  uneasiness  which 
he  feels  is  evidence  that  "  the  way  of  transgressors 
is  hard." 

In  that  state  two  motives  arise  to  induce  the  man 
to  drink  again.  One  is,  to  obtain  the  former  plea- 
sure ;  the  other  is,  to  rid  himself  of  present  pain. 
Hence  he  drinks  again;  but  .as  the  system  is  now 
somewhat  exhausted,  the  same  quantity  will  not 
produce  the  same  effect.  It  will  not  raise  him  so 
high,  or  cause  his  weary  organs  to  move  so  brisk- 
ly. Of  course  it  will  not  make  him  feel  so  well 
as  he  did  before,  or  wholly  remove  his  present 
pain.  To  do  that,  he  must  take  a  little  more,  and 
the  next  time  a  little  more.  Hence,  by  laws 
which  are  fixed  in  his  constitution,  he  creates  con- 
stantly incr/3asing  motives  to  take  constantly  in- 
creasing quantities  ;  till  he  loses  the  power  of  mo- 
tion,  and   falls  into    the  ditch.    Such  is   the  phi' 


28  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

losophy  of  drunkenness.  It  is  in  accordance  with 
the  nature  of  things  that  Alcohol  should  operate 
in  that  way.  Can  a  man  take  coals  into  his  bosom 
and  his  clothes  not  be  burned  ]  There  are  laws 
and  penalties  which  he  can  neither  annul  nor 
evade.  As  a  man  soweth  so  must  he  I'eap.  Of 
thorns  he  cannot  gather  figs,  nor  of  bramble 
bushes  can  he  gather  grapes.  He  must  eat  the 
fruit  of  his  own  way,  and  be  filled  with  his  own 
devices.  He  who  drinks  poison  must  feel  the  ef- 
fects of  poison.  Even  if  he  calls  it  bread,  it  will 
not  affect  him  like  bread  ;  or  if  he  thinks  it  to  be 
milk,  it  will  not  produce  the  effect  of  milk.  There 
are  laws  fixed  by  the  Creator.  Every  substance 
has  its  own  nature,  and  whatever  man  may  think, 
it  will  produce  its  appropriate  effects. 

The  appetite  formed  by  Alcohol  is  not  like  the 
natural  appetite  for  bread,  or  milk,  or  any  nourish- 
ing and  proper  food  or  drink.  This  aj)petite  a  man 
may  gratify  every  day,  and  instead  of  increasing 
his  danfjer  it  will  lessen  it.  It  does  not  increase  in 
its  demands.  What  satisfied  it  years  ago  as  to 
quantity  will  satisfy  it  now,  and  will  continue  to 
satisfy  it  through  life.  But  with  this  new,  artificial, 
unnecessary  and  dangerous  appetite,  which  men 
by  the  use  of  Alcoholic  liquors  form,  it  is  not  so. 
What  satisfied  that  years  ago,  will  not  satisfy  it 
now.  It  cries  for  ever,  **  Give,  give,"  and  never 
has  enough.  Hence  the  reason  why  the  incau- 
tious youth,  or  the  sober  man,  who  had  unhappily 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  29 

formed  this  appetite,  went  on,  step  by  step  with 
increasing  velocity,  to  the  drunkard's  grave.  Not 
a  man  on  earth  can  form  this  appetite  without  in- 
creasing his  danger  of  dying  a  drunkard.  And 
though  the  father  should  withstand  such  an  appe- 
tite, it  may  ruin  his  children  and  children's  chil- 
dren, to  the  third  and  fourth  generation. 

"  You  will  produce  a  great  effect  on  our  peo- 
ple," said  a  man  to  one  who  was  about  to  deliver 
an  address  on  temperance ;  **  for  we  have  just 
buried  a  man  who  killed  himself  by  intemperance. 
He  was  the  son  of  a  respectable  mechanic  who 
had  two  sons,  and  took  them  both  into  his  own 
business  when  they  were  young.  His  practice 
was  to  drink  moderately  two  or  three  times  a 
day.  His  sons  did  the  same.  Before  they  were 
eighteen  they  were  both  drunkards.  The  oldest 
lingered  on  to  twenty-three  and  died.  The  young- 
est can't  live  to  be  twenty-three.  He  is  going 
rapidly  the  same  way.  The  father  stands  it,  but 
the  sons  are  ruined." 

That  short  sentence  tells  the  history  of  many  a 
family  of  once  moderate  drinkers  :  **  The  father," 
it  may  be,  "  stands  it ;  but  the  sons  are  ruined."  In 
many  cases  the  father  also,  and  even  the  mother 
and  daughters  as  well  as  the  sons,  are  ruined. 
Whole  families  lie  side  by  side  in  the  drunkard's 
grave  :  families  too,  who  once  were  respectable, 
and  had  no  more  idea  of  becominsr  drunkards  than 
have  any  families  or   individuals  who  are  now, 

3* 


so  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

however  moderately,  drinking  intoxicating  liquor. 
There  is  no  safety  but  in  abstinence,  entire,  fer- 
petual  ahstinence.  If  a  man  begins  to  drink  this 
"  mocker,"  he  knows  not,  and  he  cannot  know 
where  it  will  end. 

There  is  a  violation  of  moral  law  at  the  out- 
set of  this  practice.  Every  man  is  bound  by  his 
duty  to  God,  himself,  and  his  fellow-men,  to  be 
satisfied  with  that  amount  of  animal  enjoyment 
which  he  can  obtain  by  the  proper  gratification  of 
the  natural  appetites  and  passions  which  God  has 
given  him.  He  has  no  right  to  covet  more.  If  to 
obtain  more  he  takes  other  substances,  or  forms  a 
new  appetite,  which,  like  the  desire  for  sinning  in 
the  man  who  sins,  tends  continually  to  increase, 
he  violates  a  moral  latv.  He  shows  himself  to  be 
dissatisfied  with  the  revealed  will  of  God,  and  the 
language  of  his  practice  is,  "  Not  thy  will,  but 
mine  be  done."  The  pleasures  of  drinking  Alco- 
hol are  guilty  pleasures  ;  and  the  profits  of  furnish- 
ing it  for  that  purpose  are  guilty  profits,  that  will 
not  be  likely  to  benefit  their  possessors. 

There  is  another  reason  why  men  who  drink 
Alcohol  often  continue  and  increase  the  quantity 
till  they  die.  The  more  a  man  partakes  of  the  un- 
natural and  guilty  pleasures  which  that  poison  oc- 
casions, the  more  indifferent  he  becomes  to  natu- 
ral and  innocent  pleasures,  which  result  from  the 
proper  gratification  of  the  natural  appetites  and 
passions,  from  the  contemplation  of  the  works  of 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  31 

God,  from  the  exercise  of  the  social  affections,  and 
from  the  discharge  of  the  various  duties  of  life. 
The  consequence  is,  such  a  person  becomes  more 
and  more  destitute  of  all  enjoyment  except  that  of 
this  "  mocker."  Like  Pharaoh's  lean  kine,  it  eats 
up  all  other  kine,  and  yet  its  craving  is  not  abated. 
Give  the  man  more,  and  still  more,  till  he  tumbles 
senseless  into  the  gutter,  and  lies  there  for  hours, 
a  breathing  corpse ;  yet  when  he  awakes  he  will 
**  seek  it  yet  again,"  and  will  take  it  again,  with- 
out abating  his  leanness  or  his  thirst. 

While  its  immediate  effects  become  more  and 
more  the  sum  of  all  his  joys,  its  ultimate  effects 
become  more  and  more  the  concentration  of  his 
woes.  Thus,  by  the  cravings  for  pleasure  on  the 
one  hand,  and  the  terrors  of  woe  on  the  other,  he 
is  goaded  on  to  death.  Of  all  the  devices  of  the 
**  old  murderer "  and  his  agents  to  increase  the 
descent  of  a  man  on  his  way  to  perdition,  and 
augment  the  difficulty  of  his  return,  the  drinking 
of  Alcohol  is  among  the  most  fatal.  Its  name  is 
legion,  for  its  victims  are  many. 

The  following  testimony  of  Dr.  Samuel  Emlin, 
iate  Secretary  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons  of  Philadelphia,  is  philosophically  true. 
**  We  should  not  admit  the  popular  reasoning  as 
applicable  here,  that  the  abuse  of  a  thing  is  no  ar- 
gument against  its  use.  Ml  use  of  ardent  sjnrits 
(that  is  as  a  beverage)  is  an  abuse.  They  are  mis- 
chievous under  all  circumstances."    Dr.  Cheyne, 


32  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

of  London,  states,  **  that  they  are  most  like  ot)ium 
in  their  nature,  and  like  arsenic  in  their  delete- 
rious effects."  .  Dr.  Frank  declares  **  that  their 
tendency,  even  when  used,  moderately,  is  to  induce 
disease,  premature  old  age  and  death."  Dr.  Trot- 
ter states,  "  that  of  all  the  evils  of  human  life  no 
cause  of  disease  has  so  wide  a  range,  or  so  large  a 
share  as  the  use  of  spirituous  liquors ;  and  that 
more  than  half  the  sudden  deaths  are  occasioned 
by  them."  Dr.  Harris  states,  "  that  the  moderate 
use  of  liquor  has  destroyed  many  who  were  never 
drunk  ;"  and  Dr.  Kirk  gives  it  as  his  opinion, 
"  that  men  who  were  never  considered  intempe- 
rate, by  daily  drinking,  have  often  shortened  life 
more  than  twenty  years ;  and  that  the  respectable 
use  of  this  poison  nas  killed  more  than  even  drunk- 
enness itself." 

Says  Dr.  Alden,  of  Massachusetts.  **  On  every 
organ  they  touch,  ardent  spirits  operate  as  a  poi- 
son. No  where  in  the  human  body  are  they  al- 
lowed a  lodgment  until  the  vital  powers  are  so  far 
prostrated  that  they  cannot  be  removed.  They 
are  hurried  on  from  one  organ  to  another,  mark- 
ing their  course  with  irregularity  of  action  and  dis- 
turbance of  function,  until  at  last  they  are  taken 
up  by  the  emunctories,  the  scavengers  of  the 
system,  and  unceremoniously  excluded.  When 
through  decay  of  organic  vigor  this  process  ceases, 
the  work  of  destruction  is  drawing  to  a  close,  and  the 
last  glimmerings  of  life  are  soon  extinguished.    To 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  33 

a  man  in  health  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  tempe- 
rate use  of  spirits.  In  any  quantity  they  are  an 
enemy  to  the  human  constitution.  Their  influence 
upon  the  physical  organs  is  unfavorable  to  health. 
They  produce  weakness,  not  strength ;  sickness, 
not  health  ;    death,  not  life." 

In  the  language  of  Dr.  Mussey,  of  the  Ohio 
Medical  College,  "  Does  a  healthy  laboring  man 
need  Alcohol  1  No  more  than  he  needs  arsenic, 
corrosive  sublimate,  or  opium."  Yet  he  takes  it. 
He  thinks  it  does  him  good.  He  feels  uneasy 
without  it.  He  cannot  feel  as  well  sis  he  did  be- 
fore unless  he  takes  more,  and  still  more.  So  he 
continues  to  take  it,  and  to  increase  the  quantity, 
till  in  one  half,  or  one  quarter  of  his  natural  life, 
he  goes  down  to  the  grave. 

IV.  Why  does  the  drinking  of  Alcohol  cause 
death  7  Were  the  human  body  transparent,  and 
could  we  see  the  effects  of  Alcohol  as  we  see  the 
color  of  men's  faces,  every  man  might  answer  this 
question  for  himself.  He  would  have  ocular  de- 
monstration that  Alcohol  is  a  poison,  and  that  the 
drinkiuG:  of  it  is  a  violation  of  natural  and  moral 
laws.  It  has  no  nourishment  in  it.  The  difrestive 
organs  cannot  decompose  it  or  turn  it  into  blood, 
flesh,  bones,  or  anything  by  which  the  human 
body  is  nourished,  strengthened,  and  supported. 
When  swallowed,  it  goes  into  the  stomach,  the 
common  receptacle  of  food.    This  is  a  delicate 


34  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

and  principal  organ,  and  its  state  affects  the  whole 
body.  Its  inner  coat,  in  a  healthy  condition,  is 
slightly  tinged  with  a  reddish  color.  The  blood- 
vessels which  spread  over  it  are  exceedingly  nu- 
merous, and  yet  so  small  that  the  naked  eye  can- 
not discern  them.  They  give  to  it  a  delicate  red- 
dish hue,  like  tlie  delicate  tinge  on  the  cheek  of 
a  healthy  child.  Alcohol,  when  it  touches  tliat 
delicate  organ,  irritates  the  surface,  and  produces, 
through  the  medium  of  the  nerves,  a  tingling  sen- 
sation. This  sensation  is  a  note  of  alarm  :  a  warn- 
ing to  the  system  that  an  enemy  has  invaded  it. 
The  heart,  that  great  sentinel,  starts  anew,  and 
throws  additional  forces  on  to  the  invaded  spot, 
in  order  to  protect  it.  The  blood  in  greater  quan- 
tity and  with  greater  force  rushes  into  those  little 
vessels  till,  by  and  by,  if  the  process  be  continued, 
they  become  enlarged,  so  that  you  can  see  them 
spreading  out  all  over  the  inner  surface  of  the 
stomach  in  thousands  of  ramifications,  like  the 
branches  of  a  tree.  The  surface  becomes  inflamed 
and  begins  to  grow  black.  The  blood  settles  ;  the 
coats  become  thickened  ;  ulcers  begin  to  form  and 
spread  out,  till,  if  the  process  is  continued  and  in- 
creased, as  in  the  case  of  the  drunkard,  the  whole 
inner  coat  of  that  fundamental  organ  puts  on  the 
appearance  of  mortification,  and  becomes  in  color 
like  the  back  of  a  chimney.  Not  unfrequently 
cancers  are  formed,  and  the  whole  surface  be- 
comes one  common  sore. 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  35 

The  man  cannot  digest  his  food.  The  system 
is  not  nourished.  Other  organs  become  diseased, 
till  the  body  itself  is  literally  little  else  than  a 
mass  of  putrefaction.  Says  the  late  Thomas  Se- 
wall,  M.  D.  Professor  of  Pathology  and  the  prac- 
tice of  medicine  in  the  Columbian  College,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.  "Alcohol  is  a  poison,  for  ever  at 
war  with  man's  nature ;  and  in  all  its  forms  and 
degrees  of  strength  produces  irritation  of  the  sto- 
mach which  is  liable  to  result  in  inflammation,  ul- 
ceration, and  mortification  :  a  thickening  and  in- 
duration of  its  coats  and  finally  schirrhus,  cancer, 
and  other  organic  affections.  It  may  be  asserted 
with  confidence  that  no  one  who  indulges  habitu- 
ally in  the  use  of  Alcoholic  drinks,  whether  in  the 
form  of  wine  or  more  ardent  spirits,  possesses  a 
heakhy  stomach.  That  beautiful  network  of  blood 
vessels  which  was  invisible  in  the  healthy  stomach, 
being  excited  by  Alcohol,  becomes  dilated  and 
extended  with  blood,  visible  and  distinct.  This 
effect  is  produced  upon  the  well  known  law  of 
the  animal  economy,  that  an  irritant  applied  to  a 
sensitive  texture  of  the  body  induces  an  increased 
flow  of  blood  to  the  part.  The  mucous  or  inner 
coat  of  the  stomach  is  a  sensitive  membrane,  and 
is  subject  to  this  law.  A  practical  illustration  of 
this  principle  is  shown  by  a  reference  to  the  hu- 
man eye.  If  a  few  drops  of  Alcohol  be  brought 
in  contact  with  the  delicate  coats  of  the  eye,  the 
fine  VQssels  which  were  before  invisible  become 


36  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

distended  with  blood,  and  are  easily  seen.  If  this 
operation  be  repeated  as  the  temperate  drinker 
takes  Alcohol,  the  vessels  become  habitually  in 
creased  in  size,  and  distended  with  blood."  So 
with  the  stomach.  Besides,  "  the  mucous  coat  of 
the  stomach  becomes  thickened  and  softened.  And 
these  changes  occur  in  the  temperate  drinker,  as 
well  as  in  the  confirmed  drunkard."  The  conse- 
quence is,  that  the  stomach  necessarily  becomes 
unfitted  to  digest  food,  and  the  whole  system 
suffers. 

From  the  stomach  the  Alcohol,  unchanged,  is 
taken  up  by  the  absorbent  vessels  and  carried  into 
the  blood,  that  great  receptacle  and  common  car- 
rier of  nourishment.  With  that,  it  is  circulated 
through  the  system,  till  as  a  nuisance  it  is  seized 
upon  by  the  emunctories,  the  scavengers,  and 
thrown  off.  But  it  was  Alchohol,  a  subtle  and  ir- 
ritating poison  when  taken  into  the  stomach,  and 
it  is  the  same  when  sucked  up  by  the  absorbent 
vessels  and  carried  into  the  blood.  It  is  Alcohol 
in  the  heart,  in  the  lungs,  in  the  arteries,  in  the 
brain,  in  the  veins  and  nerves  and  tissues  and 
fibres  of  the  whole  body,  and  it  is  Alcohol  when, 
having  passed  through  all  the  circulations,  it  is  ex- 
pelled. Give  it  to  a  dog,  take  the  blood  from  his 
foot  and  distil  it,  you  have  Alcohol — the  same 
which  the  dog  drank — no,  not  that  which  he 
drank,  for  a  dog  knows  too  much  to  drink  it ;  it 
is  the  same  which,  in  opposition  to  the  instinct 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  37 

which  God  gave  him,  and  drunkenness  had  not 
obliterated,  you  forced  upon  him. 

Take  the  blood  from  the  foot  of  a  drunkard, 
from  his  head,  or  his  liver,  and  distil  it — you  have 
Alcohol.  It  has  actually  been  taken  from  the 
brain,  strong  enough,  on  the  application  of  fire, 
to  burn.  Dr.  Kirk,  of  Scotland,  dissected  a  man 
who  died  in  a  fit  of  intoxication.  From  the  lateral 
ventricles  of  the  brain  he  took  a  fluid  distinctly 
sensible  to  the  smell  as  whiskey.  When  he  ap- 
plied a  candle  to  it,  it  instantly  took  fire  and 
burned  blue  :  **  the  lambent  blue  flame,"  he  says, 
**  characteristic  of  the  poison,  playing  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  spoon  for  some  seconds." 

The  lungs  also  are  loaded  with  it,  as  is  mani- 
fest from  the  breath  of  the  drunkard.  The  liver 
is  often  greatly  enlarged,  and  instead  of  four  or 
five  pounds,  its  common  weight,  it  has  been  known 
to  weigh  eight,  ten,  and  in  some  cases  twelve* 
pounds.  Its  secretions,  instead  of  being  of  a  bright 
yellow,  its  common  and  healthy  color,  have  been 
changed  to  green,  and  even  to  black ;  and  from 
being  a  thin  limpid  fluid,  have  become  thick,  like 
tar  ;  forming  not  unfrequently  biliary  calculi,  or 
largo  gall  stones. 

The  kidneys  become  granulated,  softened,  and 
changed  into  a  pale  color ;  and  even  the  moderate 
use  of  Alcoholic  drinks  leads  to  some  of  the  most 
fatal  complaints  in  the  catalogue  of  human  diseases. 

In  the  language  of  Dr.  Mussey,  "  Not  a  blood 

4 


38  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

vessel,  however  minute,  not  a  thread  of  nerve  in 
the  whole  animal  economy  escapes  its  influence." 
It  enters  the  delicate  organs  of  the  nursing  mother 
which  prepare  the  food   for  her  tender  offspring. 
It  is  taken  from  her  into  the  stomach  and  passes 
through  the  system  of  the  child,  producing  where- 
ever  it  goes  the  appropriate  effects  of  the  drunk- 
ard's poison.    The  babe  which  before  was  restless, 
now   sleeps    like  a   drunkard  ;   and  for  the   same 
reason.    The  drunkard's  appetite  has  been  formed 
at  the  breast,  or  in  the  cradle.    Said  one  of  the 
first    literary    men    in    the    United    States   to   the 
writer,   after   speaking  on  the   subject   of  tempe- 
rance, "  There  is  one  thing,  which  as  you  visit  dif- 
ferent places,  I  wish  you  to  do  everywhere  ;  that  is, 
to  entreat  every  mother  never  to  give  a  drop  of  it 
to  a  child.     I  have  had  to  fight  as  for  ray  life  all 
my  days  to  keep  from  dying  a  drunkard,   because 
I  was  fed  with  spirit  when  a  child.     I  acquired  a 
taste  for  it.   My  brother,  poor  fellow,  died  a  drunk- 
ard.   I  would  not  have  a  child  of  mine  take  a  di'op 
of  it  for  anything.  Warn  every  mother,  wherever 
you  go,  never  to  give  a  drop  of  it  to  a  child." 

Facts  abundantly  show  that  the  children  of 
those  mothers  who  drink  Alcohol  are  more  likely 
than  others  to  become  drunkards,  and  in  various 
ways  to  suffer.  Often  they  are  not  so  large  and 
healthy  as  other  children.  They  have  less  keen- 
ness and  strength  of  eye-sight,  less  firmness  and 
quietness  of  nerves,  less  capability  of  great  bodily 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  39 

and  mental  acliievement,  and  less  power  to  with- 
stand the  attacks  of  disease,  or  the  vicissitudes  of 
climates  and  seasons. 

Instances  a#e  known  where  the  first  childreii  of 
a  family,  who  were  born  when  their  parents  were 
temperate,  were  bright,  active,  and  healtliy,  while 
the  last  children,  who  were  born  after  the  parents 
had  become  intemperate,  were  feeble,  stupid, 
dwarfish  and  idiotic. 

A  medical  gentleman  writes,  "  I  have  no  doubt 
that  a  disposition  to  nervous  diseases  of  a  peculiar 
character  is  transmitted  by  drunken  parents." 
Another  gentleman  states,  that  in  two  families 
within  his  knowledge,  the  different  stages  of  intem- 
perance in  the  parents  seemed  to  be  marked  by 
a  corresponding  deterioration  in  the  bodies  and 
minds  of  the  children.  In  one  of  the  families  the 
oldest  is  industrious,  respectable,  and  accumulates 
property.  The  next  is  inferior,  and  spends  all  he 
can  get  in  strong  drink.  The  third  is  dwarfish  in 
both  body  and  mind  ;  and,  to  use  his  own  lan- 
guage, *'  is  a  miserable  remnant  of  a  man." 

The  other  family  consists  of  daughters.  The 
oldest  is  smart,  active  and  intelligent.  The  others 
are  aflllcted  with  different  degrees  of  bodily  and 
mental  imbecility,  and  the  youngest  is  an  idiot. 

Another  medical  gentleman  states  that  the  first 
child  of  a  family,  who  was  born  when  the  habits 
of  the  mother  were  good,  was  healthy  and  promis- 
ing, while  the  four  last  children,  who  were  born 


40  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

after  the  mother  became  addicted  to  the  use  of 
opium,  appeared  to  be  stupid,  and  all  at  about  the 
same  age  died  of  a  disease  apparently  occasioned 
by  the  habits  of  the  mother.  ■> 

Dr.  Darwin  says,  **  It  is  remarkable  that  all  the 
diseases  arising  from  drinking  spirituous  or  fer- 
mented liquors  are  liable  to  become  hereditary, 
even  to  the  third  generation  ;  gradually  increasing, 
if  the  cause  be  continued,  till  the  family  becomes 
extinct." 

A  committee  of  the  British  Parliament  in  their 
report  on  this  subject,  say,  "  Intemperate  parents, 
according  to  high  medical  testimony,  give  a  taint 
to  their  offspring.  The  poisonous  stream  of  ar- 
dent spirits  is  conveyed  through  the  milk  of  the 
mother  to  the  infant  at  the  breast,  so  that  the  foun- 
tain of  life,  through  which  nature  supplies  that 
pure  and  healthy  nutriment  of  infancy,  is  poisoned 
at  its  source.  A  diseased  appetite  is  created  which 
grows  with  its  growth,  and  strengthens  with  its  in- 
creasing weakness  and  decay." 

Dr.  Caldwell  remarks,  "  By  habits  of  intempe- 
rance parents  not  only  degrade  and  ruin  themselves, 
but  transmit  the  elements  of  like  ruin  and  degrada- 
tion to  their  posterity.  In  hundreds  of  instances 
parents  who  have  had  children  born  while  their 
habits  were  temperate,  have  become  afterwards 
intemperate,  and  had  other  children  born.  In  such 
cases  it  is  matter  of  notoriety  that  the  younger 
children  have  become  addicted  to  the  practice  of 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  41 

intoxication  much  more  frequently  than  the  elder, 
in  the  proportion  of  five  to  one." 

Says  a  distinguished  writer,  "  On  this  subject, 
at  the  present  day  there  exists  little  differ^ice  of 
opinion  among  medical  men." 

Another  gentleman  mentions  a  case  which  is,  if 
possible,  more  dreadful.  A  respectable  and  in- 
fluential man,  early  in  life  adopted  the  practice  of 
using  a  little  intoxicating  drink  daily.  He  and  six 
of  his  children,  three  sons  and  three  daup-hters, 
now  lie  in  the  drunkard's  grave.  The  other  and 
only  remaining  child  is  hastening  ra^^idly  to  the 
same  dismal  end. 

The  following  is  the  history  of  eight  families  in 
one  town,  the  heads  of  which  used  intoxicating 
liquor.  The  first  had  one  child,  a  daughter.  A 
great  sum  was  expended  on  her  education.  She 
died  from  the  effects  of  strong  drink. 

The  second  had  an  only  son.  He  was  educated 
with  great  care  and  at  great  expense,  but  was 
killed  by  wine. 

The  third  had  four  sons  and  one  daughter.  The 
daughter  is  a  drunkard,  and  one  son  has  gone  to 
the  drunkard's  grave. 

The  fourth  had  three  sons.  One  died  of  intem- 
perance, one  was  killed  in  a  duel,  and  the  other  is 
a  drunkard. 

The  fifth  had  one  son  who  killed  himself  by 
drinking,  and  two  step-sons  are  drunkards  on 
wine. 

4* 


42  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

The  sixth  had  five  sons.  Two  are  dead  through 
intemperance,  and  another  is  a  drunkard. 

The  seventh  had  five  sons.  Four  are  drunkards, 
and  one  through  the  influence  of  liquor  is  an  idiot. 

The  eighth  had  five  sons  and  three  nephews. 
Four  of  the  sons  have  been  killed  by  alcohol,  and 
the  fifth  is  a  drunkard,  and  the  three  nephews  aro 
in  the  drunkard's  grave. 

Thus  the  sin  of  drinking  and  its  punishment  go 
from  parents  to  children,  sweeping  many,  very 
many  to  a  premature  grave,  and  rendering  many 
more  a  torment  to  survivors. 

Of  two  hundred  and  elghty-six  persons  in  one 
insane  hospital,  one  hundred  and  fifteen  were  de- 
prived of  reason  by  strong  drink.  Of  four  hundred 
and  ninety-five  in  another  hospital,  two  hundred 
and  fifty-seven,  according  to  the  testimony  of  their 
own  friends,  were  rendered  insane  in  the  same 
way.  And  the  physicians  who  had  the  care  of 
them,  gave  It  as  their  opinion  that  this  was  the  case 
with  many  others. 

Nor  is  it  strange,  that,  with  a  poison  In  the 
brain,  men  should  lose  their  reason.  It  would  bo 
strange  if  they  should  not,  especially  with  such  an 
irritating  poison  as  alcohol.  That  is  the  reason 
why  men  after  drinking  It,  have  so  much  less  rea- 
son than  they  had  before.  They  have  a  poison  in 
the  brain.  Hence  merchants  who  drink  it  often 
repent,  on  the  subsequent  morning,  of  the  bargains 
which  they  made  the  previous  afternoon ;  and  the 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  43 

people  often  have  occassion  to  be  ashamed  of  the 
speeches  which  are  made,  and  the  legislation  which 
is  adopted  by  their  rulers,  in  the  evening.  Many 
of  them  had  a  "  mocker  "  in  the  brain,  and  were 
more  fit  subjects  for  an  insane  hospital  than  for 
the  halls  of  legislation.  A  distinguished  medical 
practitioner  who  had  had  great  experience  on  this 
subject,  stated  that,  in  his  judgment,  more  than  half 
the  cases  of  insanity  that  had  come  under  his  no- 
tice were  occasioned  either  directly  or  indirectly 
by  intoxicating  liquor.  Says  Dr.  Pearson,  "  The 
love  of  strong  drink  and  the  proneness  to  mania 
are  interchangeable  causes." 

It  also  produces  numerous  other  diseases.  In 
the  language  of  Dr.  Sewall,  "  Dispepsia,  jaundice, 
emaciation,  corpulence,  dropsy,  ulcers,  rheuma- 
tism, gout,  tremors,  paljoitation,  hysteria,  epilepsy, 
palsy,  lethargy,  apoplexy,  melancholy,  madness, 
delirium  tremens,  and  premature  old  age,  compose 
but  a  small  part  of  the  catalogue  of  diseases  pro- 
duced by  alcoholic  drinks." 

Of  ninety-one  adults  who  died  in  New  Haven, 
Connecticut,  in  one  year,  thirty-two,  according  to 
the  united  testimony  of  the  Medical  Association, 
were  occasioned  by  strong  drink. 

Of  sixty-seven  adult  deaths  in  New  Brunswick, 
New  Jersey,  more  than  one-third  were  occasioned 
in  the  same  way. 

The  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  of 
Philadelphia  gave  it  as  their  opinion,  that  out  of 


44  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

four  thousand  two  hundred  and  niiiety-two  deaths 
in  that  city,  seven  hundred,  or  more  than  one  in 
seven,  were  occasioned  by  intoxicating  liquors. 

The  Physicians  of  Annapolis,  Maryland,  stated, 
that  of  eighteen  males  over  eighteen  years  of  age, 
who  died  in  one  year  in  that  city,  half  were  occa- 
sioned by  intemperance,  and  they  add,  "When 
we  recollect  that  even  the  temperate  use,  as  it  is 
called,  of  ardent  spirits,  lays  the  foundation  of  a 
numerous  train  of  incurable  maladies,  we  feel  jus- 
tified in  expressing  the  belief  that,  were  the  use 
of  them  discontinued,  the  number  of  deaths  am.ong 
the  male  adults  would  be  diminished  one-half." 

The  facts  that  alcohol  is  indigestible,  affords  no 
nourishment,  and  is  an  irritating  poison,  would 
seem  to  show  that  it  must  be  hurtful,  and  there- 
fore that  it  must  be  morally  wrong  to  drink  it,  or 
to  furnish  it  to  be  drunk  by  others. 

V.  All  the  organs  of  the  human  body  have  as 
much  work  to  do  as  is  consistent  with  permanent- 
ly healthful  action,  when  they  have  to  remove  only 
what  is  occasioned  by  nourishing  food  and  drink. 
God  designed  in  that  case  that  they  should  all  be 
"  diligent  in  business."  In  the  structure  of  the 
body  he  has  given  them  as  much  to  do  as  they  can 
perform,  and  yet  to  the  longest  preserve  human 
life.  If  you  withhold  what  is  nourishing,  and  thus 
diminish  their  strength,  or  load  them  with  what 
is  not  nourishing,  and  thus  increase  their  labor, 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  45 

you  necessarily  wear  them  out  too  soon,  and  pro- 
duce premature  decay  and  death. 

By  drinking  alcohol  you  do  both.  You  also 
deteriorate  the  quality  of  the  nourishment  which 
you  do  afford.  Amidst  the  irritation  and  excite- 
ment which  the  poison  occasions,  the  functions  of 
the  digestive  organs  are  deranged.  TJiey  cannot 
furnish  nourishment  so  pure  and  healthful  as  they 
otherwise  would.  The  consequence  is,  other  parts 
of  the  body  become  diseased,  and  thus  you  work 
out  destruction. 

Digestion  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  all 
the  animal  functions.  The  object  is  to  convert 
food  into  nourishment,  for  the  purpose  of  renovat- 
ing and  sustaining  the  system,  by  repairing  the 
wastes  which  are  continually  taking  place.  This 
function  alcohol  peculiarly  disturbs.  From  the 
stomach  food  passes  into  the  intestines,  having 
been  changed  first  into  chyme  and  then  into  chyle. 
The  nourishing  properties  are  there  taken  up  by 
absorbent  vessels,  poured  into  the  blood,  and  car- 
ried with  it  to  the  right  side  of  the  heart.  From 
that,  in  tubes  which  God  has  prepared,  called  ar- 
teries, it  is  sent  to  the  lungs.  There  it  comes  in- 
to contact  with  atmospheric  air,  and  takes  out  of 
it  what  it  needs  in  order,  with  what  it  has,  to  sup- 
port the  body.  It  is  then  sent  back  in  another 
set  of  tubes,  called  veins,  to  the  left  side  of  the 
heart.  From  that  it  is  sent  in  arteries  to  all  parts 
of  the  body,  carrying  to  each  part  what  each  part 


46  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL 

needs.  On  these  tubes,  through  wbich  the  blood 
with  its  treasures  flows,  are  multitudes  of  little 
vessels  whose  office  is,  each  one,  to  take  out  from 
the  blood  the  kijid  and  quantity  of  nourishment 
•which  it  needs  for  its  own  support,  and  also  for 
the  support  of  that  part  of  the  body  which  is  com- 
mitted to  iis  care.  These  little  vessels,  although 
exceedingly  minute  and  delicate,  are  endowed 
with  the  power  of  taking  that  kind  and  quantity 
of  nourishment  which  they  need  for  the  above- 
mentioned  purposes,  and  of  abstaining  from  what 
they  do  not  need,  and  letting  it  pass  on  to  places 
where  it  may  be  needed,  or  if  not  needed  any 
where,  may  be  in  due  time  thrown  out  of  the  body. 
And  they  are  endowed  with  the  pov/er  of  doing 
this  with  a  precision  and  accuracy  which  led  God 
himself,  in  view  of  their  operations,  to  pronounce 
them  "  very  good."  Had  they  not  been  deranged 
by  sin,  and  abused  by  sinners,  they  would  have 
shown  to  perfection  the  wisdom  and  goodness  of 
their  Author. 

For  instance  :  the  vessels  which  are  placed  at 
the  end  of  the  fingers,  as  the  blood  comes  there, 
will  take  out  what  is  needed  for  their  own  support, 
and  also  what  is  needed  to  make  finger  nails,  while 
they  cautiously  abstain  from  that  which  will  only 
make  hair  and  let  it  go  to  the  head.  Those  placed 
there  will  take  out  what  they  need  for  their  sup- 
port, and  also  what  will  make  hair  and  work  it  up, 
or  cause  the  hair  to  grow,  while  they  will  abstain 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.        '  47 

from  that  which  will  only  make  eye-balls,  and  let  it 
go  to  the  eyes.  The  waiters  that  stand  there  will 
take  that  out  and  work  it  up  into  eyes,  or  cause 
them  to  grow.     So  throughout  the  whole  body. 

Among  the  millions  and  millions  of  little  work- 
ers, day  and  night — all  "  diligent  in  business  "  when 
not  invaded  by  transgression,  there  is  the  most  pure' 
and  perfect  harmony,  the  most  delicate  sensibility, 
and  the  most  wonderful  sympathy.  "  If  one  mem- 
ber suffer,  all  the  members  suffer  with  it ;  and  if 
one  member  rejoice,  all  the  members  rejoice  with 
it."  There  is  "  no  schism  in  the  body."  The  good 
of  each  is  the  good  of  all,  and  each,  in  view  of  all, 
echoes  the  declaration  of  its  Maker,  "  Very  good." 

When  the  blood  has  reached  the  extremities,  hav- 
ing traversed  all  parts  of  the  body  and  left  its  trea- 
sures as  they  were  needed  along  on  the  way,  there 
is  another  set  of  tubes  to  take  the  blood  from  which 
the  nourishment  has  been  abstracted,  and  with  it 
what  is  not  needed,  or  has  been  worn  out,  and  carry 
it  back  again  to  the  right  side  of  the  heart.  On  its 
way  back,  when  it  gets  under  the  left  shoulder,  it 
receives  from  the  stomach,  through  what  is  called 
whe  thoracic  duct,  a  new  supply  of  chyle,  and  car- 
ries it  to  the  heart,  and  from  that  to  the  lungrs. 
Then  by  expiration,  or  breathing  out,  is  thrown  off 
a  portion  of  the  worn  out  and  poisonous  matter 
which  if  retained  would  only  do  mischief;  and  by 
inspiration,  or  breathing  in,  it  takes  a  new  supply 
of  what  is  needed  to  turn  the  chyle   into  blood, 


48  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

change  the  blood  from  a  dark  to  a  bright  red  color, 
vivify  the  whole,  and  prepare  it  to  go  back  to  the 
left  side  of  the  heart,  and  from  that  around  the 
body. 

It  is  that  worn  out  and  hurtful  matter  which,  by 
breathing  out,  is  thrown  off,  that  makes  the  breath 
offensive,  and  renders  it  unfit  to  be  breathed  over 
again.  Hence  the  reason  why,  in  a  crowded  room 
where  the  air  which  was  breathed  out  is  breathed 
in  again,  people  so  often  faint.  If  they  could  not 
get  fresh  air  they  would  die,  as  people  do  in  a  close 
room  from  the  fumes  of  burning  charcoal.  Hence 
too  the  reason  why  sleeping  rooms,  to  be  most 
healthful,  must  be  large  and  airy,  so  that  the  oxy- 
gen, or  vital  principle  of  the  atmosphere  shall  not 
be  exhausted ;  or  the  carbon,  the  poisonous  pro- 
perty in  that  which  is  breathed  out,  shall  not  be 
breathed  in  again.  It  is  the  carbon  which  gives  to 
the  blood  after  it  has  been  around  the  body,  its 
blackish  color.  It  has  a  stronger  affinity  for  atmos- 
pheric air  than  it  has  for  blood.  Of  course,  when 
it  reaches  the  lungs,  it  leaves  the  blood,  combines 
with  the  air,  and  is  thrown  off.  The  oxygen  has  a 
stronger  affinity  for  blood  than  for  air.  Of  course  it 
leaves  the  air  and  combines  with  the  blood,  turns 
it  to  a  bright  red  color,  gives  it  life,  and  prepares 
it  to  carry  life  through  the  body.  Thus  is  God  in 
his  providence  continually  breathing  into  the  blood 
the  breath  of  life,  and  making  it  a  living  substance, 
while  man  is  continually  breathing  out  what  is  dead 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  49 

and,  if  retained,  would  cause  his  death.  Vegeta- 
tion takes  up  the  carbon  which  man  breathes  out, 
and  lives  upon  it,  while  it  gives  out  oxygen,  upon 
which  man  lives.  Thus  they  mutually  supply  and 
aid  each  other,  doing  good  according  to  their  na- 
ture, as  they  have  opportunity,  and  so,  as  do  all  the 
works  of  God,  praising  their  Maker.  Of  course  it 
is  healthy  to  have  shade  trees  and  vegetation  about 
our  dwellings  to  take  up  the  carbon  and  furnish 
oxygen. 

After  oxygen  has  vivified  the  blood  and  pre- 
pared it  to  nourish  and  support  the  body,  the 
heart,  like  a  steam-engine,  worked,  not  by  fires 
which  men  can  kindle,  but  by  the  breath  of  the 
Almighty,  to  give  the  blood  with  its  treasures  good 
speed,  keeps  constantly  moving,  day  and  night, 
summer  and  winter,  through  storm  and  sun-shine, 
sickness  and  health,  till  the  immortal  passenger, 
according  to  his  character  and  conduct  on  the 
voyage,  is  landed  in  his  eternally  appropriate 
abode. 

The  quantity  of  blood  which,  in  the  course  of 
man's  life  is  thus  carried  through  the  heart,  and 
thence  is  circulated  th'rough  the  body,  is  very  great. 
About  two  ounces  in  a  healthy  man  are  exjielled 
at  every  contraction  or  beating  of  the  heart.  If  it 
beat  sixty  times  a  minute,  it  makes  seven  and  a 
half  pounds,  equal  to  four  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
in  an  hour,  ten  thousand  eight  hundred  pounds,  or 
five  tons  eight  hundred  pounds  in  a  day.    This 

5 


50  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

amount  is  sent  from  the  heart  to  the  lungs  and 
around  the  body  daily.  Who  can  estimate  its  in- 
fluence on  health  and  life,  or  the  importance  of  its 
being  in  a  good  condition  ]  Whatever  vitiates  the 
blood^cripples  the  heart  and  impairs  the  lungs;  tends 
to  undermine  the  constitution  and  to  shorten  hu- 
man life.  The  stomach,  as  we  have  seen,  is  the 
feeder  of  the  w^hole.  Is  it  possible  that  alcohol 
should  corrupt  its  juices,  inflame  its  membranes, 
thicken  its  coat,  and  ulcerate  its  surface  and  not 
injure  the  body  1    Judge  ye. 

In  addition  to  the  organs  which  have  been  des 
cribed,  there  is  another  set  of  vessels,  too  numerous 
and  minute  for  any  man  to  number,  whose  office  is 
to  take  up  nuisances,  refuse  matter  and  worn  out 
particles  which,  if  retained,  would  bo  hurtful,  and 
throw  them  out  of  the  body.  What  other  organs 
reject  and  thus  show  to  be  enemies,  these  organs 
seize  upon,  and  turn  out  of  doors.  By  so  doing 
they  protect  the  body  from  poisons  which  are  gene- 
rated, and  keep  it  from  being  destroyed  before  its- 
time.  Some  of  these  poisons,  as  we  have  seen,  are 
thrown  off  from  the  lungs  through  the  mouth  and 
nose ;  others  are  thrown  off  through  the  skin  by 
insensible  perspiration.  The  amount  excluded  by 
this  latter  method  in  a  healthy  man,  is  between  one 
and  two  pounds  a  day.  It  is  that  which  soils  the 
linen  and  renders  it  needful,  would  a  man  be  most 
healthy  and  long-lived,  or  avoid  becoming  offen- 
sive, frequently  to  wash  it  in  order  to  free  it  frojn 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  61 

the  dead  and  poisonous  matter  which  has  been 
expelled  from  the  body.  When  a  person  exercises 
freely  the  perspiration  becomes  more  abundant  and 
visible.  The  whole  surface  is  covered  with  it. 

The  skin  is  full  of  pores  or  little  openings  for 
the  purpose  of  permitting  this  offensive  matter  to 
escape.  If  the  linen  and  the  skin  are  often  wash- 
ed, and  the  pores  kept  open,  the  poison  will  escape 
easily,  and  the  vessels  whose  business  it  is  will 
expel  it  more  thoroughly.  That  is  the  reason  why 
frequent  bathing  of  the  whole  body  is  so  healthful. 
It  enables  nature  more  easily  and  thoroughly  to 
do  her  work,  to  keep  the  body  clean  within  as 
well  as  without.  If  by  filth,  or  by  sitting,  when 
warm,  in  a  current  of  cold  air,  or  in  any  other 
way,  the  pores  are  stopped  up,  perspiration  will 
be  checked.  That  which  should  have  been  thrown 
off  through  the  skin  will  be  retained,  produce  irri- 
tation, head-ache,  loss  of  appetite,  inflammation 
and  fever.  Or  it  will  be  turned  inward  upon  the 
lungs,  as  in  a  cold,  and  create  a  cough.  That 
which  should  have  been  expelled  through  the  skin 
must  now  be  thrown  off  in  masses,  through  the 
mouth  and  nose  ;  often  with  great  labor,  and  not 
a  little  danger.  Or  if  it  cannot  be  thrown  off  fast 
enough  in  that  way,  it  may  inflame  the  parts,  oc- 
casion swellings,  tumors,  and  abscesses,  which  will 
break  and  run,  and  the  poisonous  matter  be  ex- 
pelled in  that  way.  Or  if  it  cannot  be  removed  so, 
it  may  produce  obstructions  of  the  liver,  the  kid- 


52  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

« 
neys,  and  other  organs.  Or  it  may  cause  inflamma- 
tion and  ulceration  of  lungs,  and  the  person  die  of 
consumption.  Many  cases  of  consumption  every 
year  spring  from  checked  perspiration,  a  neglect- 
ed cold,  or  a  failure  to  keep  the  skin  in  a  clean 
and  healthy  condition.  Just  imagine  a  pound  of 
dead,  putrifying  matter  which  should  hare  been 
excluded,  left  in  the  body,  to  spread  putrefaction 
and  death  through  the  delicate  fibres,  organs,  and 
tissues  of  the  frame.  Would  you  be  most  healthy, 
and  have  existence  a  source  of  constant  delight, 
let  not  only  your  linen,  but  your  skin,  often  feel 
the  purifying  influence  of  clean  water.  Keep  all 
the  pores  in  an  open,  active  and  healthful  state, 
that  all  the  poisons  which  are  generated,  the  worn- 
out  and  hurtful  particles,  may  be  easily  and  tho- 
roughly excluded.  Above  all,  take  no  artificial 
poisons,  which  were  never  made  for  food  or  drink. 
If  you  take  thcrriy  you  commence  a  process  of  suicide^ 
hy  requirhig  the  organs  to  perform  an  increased 
amount  of  labor,  while  at  the  same  time  you  dimi- 
nish their  strength,  and  thus  necessarily  wear  them 
out  before  their  time.    Alcohol,  in    all    its 

FORMS,    IS    SUCH   A   POISON. 

From  the  manner  in  which  these  two  different 
sets  of  organs,  viz.  those  for  the  deposit  of  nou- 
rishment, and  those  for  the  expulsion  of  poisons, 
treat  any  substance  which  is  taken  into  the  body, 
and  from  the  manner  in  which  that  substance  treats 
them,  we  learn  its  nature,  and  the  will  of  God  in 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  53 

regard  to  the  use  of  it.  If  the  organs  for  the  de- 
posit of  nourishment  will  take  hold  of  it  and  work 
it  up  into  flesh,  or  bones,  or  any  thing  by  which  the 
body  is  nourished,  or  which  causes  it  to  grow 
strong  and  healthy,  then  the  substance  is  good,  and 
it  is  proper  to  use  it.  But  if  those  organs  reject  it, 
and  thus  show  that  they  have  no  need  of  it ;  and 
the  organs  for  the  expulsion  of  poison  seize  upon 
it,  and  drive  it  from  the  territory,  then  it  is  an 
enemy,  and  ought  not  to  be  admitted  into  the  camp. 

How  then  do  these  two  sets  of  organs  treat  al- 
cohol 1  First,  how  do  those  treat  it,  whose  business 
is  to  deposit  nourishment  1  Do  they  take  it  and 
work  it  up  into  flesh,  or  bones,  sinews,  nerves,  or 
any  thing  by  which  the  body  is  nourished,  strength- 
ened, and  supported  1  Never.  They  all  instinc- 
tively reject  it.  They  have  no  need  of  it;  they 
cannot  use  it.  Alcohol  it  was,  alcohol  it  is,  and 
alcohol  it  will  be,  in  spite  of  all  they  can  do  with 
it.    It  only  injures  them. 

We  have  seen  how  it  treats  the  stomach,  swell- 
ing its  ten  thousand  little  blood-vessels  to  many 
times  their  proper  size,  inflaming,  thickening,  and 
ulcerating  its  coats,  and  changing  its  delicate, 
reddish  hue  into  blackness.  When  carried  into 
the  blood  it  goes  to  one  gi'oup  of  vessels  and  they 
reject  it,  to  another,  and  they  reject  it.  If  they  can 
prevent  it  they  will  not  suffer  it  even  to  stop.  "  It 
is  hurried  on  from  organ  to  organ,  marking  its 
course  with  irregularity  of  action  and  disturbance 

5* 


54  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

of  function,"  till,  having  passed  around  the  body, 
it  has  been  rejected  by  all.  Nor  is  this  the  whole  : 
while  they  fight  against  it,  it  impedes  their  pro- 
gress, or  goads  them  on  to  madness.  Having  to 
labor  amidst  the  fire  and  fumes  of  an  irritating, 
poisonous  foe,  they  become  irritated  and  poisoned ; 
their  sensibilities  are  blunted,  their  energies  crip- 
pled, and  they  cannot  do  their  proper  work.  Those 
parts  of  the  body  which  are  dependent  on  them 
for  support  are  not  supplied,  and  they  complain. 
The  organs  retort,  the  harmony  of  the  system  is 
interrupted,  sympathy  between  the  parts  is  weak- 
ened, and  then  destroyed.  Confusion  ensues,  and 
every  evil  work.  In  their  blind  intoxicated  frenzy 
they  bite  and  devour  one  another,  and  so  are  con- 
sumed one  of  another. 

The  marks  of  that  warfare,  when  it  has  contin- 
ued long  and  proceeded  far,  are  seen  in  the  crim- 
soned face,  the  bloodshot  eye,  the  swollen  nose,  the 
palsied  tongue,  the  trembling  hands,  the  tottering 
steps  and  the  falling  body ;  while  the  common  ene- 
my goes  on  from  conquering  to  conquer,  till,  if  he 
cannot  be  expelled,  death  and  destruction  reign 
over  all.  Were  the  body  transparent  you  would 
see  the  footprints  of  the  enemy  on  the  inside,  long 
before  you  discover  them  on  the  outside. 

Such  is  the  reception  which  alcohol  receives 
from  the  organs  designed  to  deposit  nourishment, 
and  such  are  some  of  the  effects  which  it  produces 
on  them. 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL  55 

• 

What  reception  does  it  meet  with  from  the  or- 
gans whose  business  is  to  watch  for  enemies 
and  clear  off  nuisances  'i  Do  they  let  it  alone  1  or, 
do  they,  like  the  other  organs,  suffer  it  to  continue 
to  pass  on  through  the  highway  of  the  system  ?  If 
they  should, they  would  [_.i  traitors.  But  they  are 
not  traitors,  nor  are  they  cowards.  Any  invading 
foe,  however  powerful,  they  will  attack,  even  al- 
cohol itself.  No  sooner  does  it  come  within  their 
reach  than  they  seize  it,  work  at  it,  and  never 
leave  it,  unless  they  are  conquered,  till  they  expel 
it.  It  is  a  war  of  desperation  ;  never  to  cease  till 
one  party  or  the  other  is  conquered.  The  first  in- 
vaders they  expel,  and  the  next,  and  the  next.  But 
if  new  recruits,  with  increasing  numbers  and  pow- 
er continue  to  invade,  and  their  own  recruits  begin 
to  fail,  their  resources  to  diminish,  and  their  pow- 
er to  decline  :  especially  if  7/oUf  who  are  their 
guardian,  and  ought  to  be  their  protector,  for 
whom  they  have  labored  with  untiring  assiduity 
day  and  night  for  years,  if  you  turn  traitor,  side 
with  the  enemy,  and  pour  in  his  recruits,  those 
organs,  in  that  sickly  climate,  with  that  deadly  foe, 
will  begin  to  faint,  and  by  and  by  sink  down  in 
despair,  while  they  and  you,  by  your  own  suicidal 
hands,  will  die  together. 

Keep  in  mind  that  this  is  all  extra  labor,  of  a 
most  exhausting  kind,  with  a  deadly  foe,  and  in  a 
poisonous  atmosphere  which  that  foe  creates.  It 
ir  cruelty  to  one's  self,  more  abominable  than  that 


56  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

• 
"which  Egyptian  taskmasters  exercised  towards 
their  slaves.  They  required  them  to  make  brick 
without  straw,  but  they  did  not  lessen  their  food ; 
ihey  did  not  poison  their  atmosphere ;  they  did 
not  diminish  their  strength ;  they  did  not  multiply 
their  enemies.  All  these  the  rum-drinker  does  to 
his  own  organs,  which  he  is  bound,  by  every  prin- 
ciple of  duty  and  interest,  to  protect,  and  to  nour- 
ish as  a  part  of  himself.  But  in  violation  of  all,  he 
becomes  his  own  destroyer.  Human  life  in  this 
way  is  often  cut  off  ten,  twenty,  and  sometimes 
fifty  years  sooner  than  sin  or  Satan,  without  alco- 
hol, would  accomplish  it.  The  poor  soul  by  vio- 
lence is  driven  from  its  earthly  tenement,  and  not 
permitted  to  stay  out  its  proper  time  by  half  a  cen- 
tury. No  wonder  unerring  Justice  and  infallible 
Truth  should  say,  "  Woe  unto  him  that  giveth  his 
neighbor  drink,  that  puttest  thy  bottle  to  him  and 
makest  him  drunken." 

Suppose  a  farmer  should  take  aw^ay  from  his 
laborers  a  part  of  their  food,  should  poison  their 
atmosphere,  and  thus  diminish  their  strength ; 
should  set  enemies  to  oppose  them,  load  them 
with  fetters,  and  then  with  a  whip  compel  them  to 
do  double  duty,  he  would  treat  them  somewhat  as 
the  drinker  of  alcohol  treats  his  own  body. 

Facts,  carefully  collected  and  extensively  circu- 
lated, justify  the  conclusion  that  alcohol  has  within 
fifty  years  cut  off  in  the  United  States  more  than 
thirty  million  years  of  human  life  j   and  ushered 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  57 

more  than  a  million  of  souls  uncalled  into  the  pre- 
sence of  their  Maker. 

Seventy-five  physicians  of  Boston  have  given 
the  follovi'inor  testimony,  viz.  "  Men  in  health  are 
never  benefitted  by  the  use  of  ardent  spirits ;  on 
the  contrary,  the  use  of  it  is  a  frequent  cause  of 
disease  and  death,  and  often  renders  such  dis- 
eases as  arise  from  other  causes  more  difficult  of 
cure  and  more  fatal  in  their  termination." 

Forty-five  physicians  of  Cincinnati  have  stated 
as  follows  :  "  Ardent  spirit  is  not  only  unneces- 
sary, but  absolutely  injurious  in  a  healthful  state  of 
the  system.  It  produces  many,  and  aggravates  most 
of  the  diseases  to  which  the  human  frame  is  liable. 
It  is  equally  poisonous  with  arsenic,  operating 
sometimes  more  slowly,  but  with  equal  certainty." 

Similar  testimony  has  been  given  by  hundreds 
of  the  most  learned  and  intelligent  medical  men. 
An  aged  physician,  after  long  and  extensive  prac- 
tice, remarks,  "  Half  the  men  every  year  who  die 
of  fevers  might  recover  had  they  not  been  in  the 
habit  of  using  ardent  spirit.  Many  a  man  down 
for  weeks  with  a  fever,  had  he  not  used  ardent 
spirit  would  not  have  been  confined  to  his  house 
a  day.  He  might  have  felt  a  slight  headache,  but 
a  little  fasting  would  have  lemoved  the  difficulty, 
and  the  man  been  well.  Many  men  who  were 
never  intoxicated,  when  visited  with  a  fever  might 
be  raised  up  were  it  not  for  that  state  of  the  sys- 
tem which  daily  moderate  drinking  occasions,  who 


58  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

now,  notwithstanding  all  that  can  be  done,  sink 
down  and  die." 

An  aged  physician  in  Maryland  stated,  that 
when  the  fever  breaks  out  there,  Ders^^ns  who  do 
not  use  spirituous  liquors  are  not  half  as  likely  as 
others  to  have  it,  and  when  they  do  have  it,  they 
are  ten  times  as  likely  to  recover. 

A  physician  who  had  lived  in  a  country  town 
more  than  forty  years,  stated,  that  from  De- 
cember, 1829,  to  January,  1834,  the  number  of 
men  who  died  was  twenty-five.  Sixteen  died 
drunkards.  Two  of  the  remaining  nine  were 
young  men,  who  were  suddenly  killed.  The  ave- 
rage age  of  the  drunkards  was  about  foity-four 
years.-  They  lived  after  they  became  drunkards, 
on  an  average,  about  eleven  years.  The  average 
age  of  the  sober  men  who  died  a  natural  death, 
was  upwards  of  seventy-four  years;  making,  upon 
an  average,  a  difference  between  the  drunken  and 
the  sober  of  about  thirty  years. 

Dr.  Cheyne,  of  Dublin,  after  upwards  of  thirty 
years  of  medical  practice,  observation,  and  expe- 
rience, gives  the  following  opinion :  "  Let  ten 
young  men  begin  at  twenty-one  years  of  age  to 
use  but  one  glass  of  spirits  of  only  two  ounces  a 
day,  and  never  increase  the  quantity,  nine  out  of 
ten  of  those  young  men  will  shorten  life  upon  an 
average  more  than  ten  years." 

But  let  us  take  only  half  those  numbers.  Sup- 
pose that  moderate  drinking  shortens  life,  upon  an 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  59 

average,  five  years,  and  drunkenness  fifteen  ;  that 
there  are  in  the  United  States  twenty-five  mode- 
rate drinkers  to  one  drunkard,  and  that  there  are 
three  hundred  thousand  drunkards,  alcohol  would 
cut  off  in  one  generation  forty  million  years  of 
human  life  ;  equal  to  twenty  years  each  of  more 
than  two  millions  of  men.  And  this  in  ordinary 
times  without  any  special  sickness,  and  under  the 
operation  of  only  the  ordinary  causes  of  mortality. 
In  seasons  of  special  sickness  and  prevalent 
epidemics,  and  by  sudden  deaths,  the  number 
might  be  greatly  increased.  Of  seventy-seven  per- 
sons found  dead,  sixty-seven,  according  to  the  co- 
roner's inquest,  were  killed  by  strong  drink,  A 
single  coroner  held  an  inquest  on  twenty-four  per- 
sons, all  of  whom  came  to  their  death  through  the 
influence  of  liquor.  Nine-tenths  of  those  who  in 
hot  weather  die  suddenly  after  drinking  cold  wa- 
ter are  persons  who  had  been  addicted  to  the  use 
of  spirits.  Life  had  been  so  diminished  that  they 
could  not  endure  what  would  give  a  sound  healthy 
man  no  inconvenience.  When  a  candle  is  just 
flickering  in  the  socket  it  may  be  extinguished 
by  a  breath  of  air,  which  if  it  burned  brightly, 
would  only  make  it  blaze  the  higher.  So  with 
those  men  who  are  killed  by  cold  water.  The 
lamp  of  life  was  so  nearly  extinguished  that  a 
slight  change  put  it  out.  So,  that  ex})osure  in  un- 
healtliy  seasons  and  climates,  which  a  man  who 
takes  no  alcohol  vv^ill  withstand,  and  from  which  he 


60  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

will  suffer  little  or  no  inconvenience,  will  prostrate 
a  drunkard  and  even  a  moderate  drinker.  That 
sickness  of  which  the  former  may  easily  be  cured 
will  kill  the  latter.  He  was  half,  two-thirds,  or 
three-quarters  dead  before. 

Hence  the  following  facts  :  Dr.  Bronson,  of  Al- 
bany, who  spent  some  time  in  Montreal,  Canada, 
during  the  prevalence  of  the  cholera  in  1832, 
wrote  as  follows  : 

"  Cholera  has  stood  up  here  as  it  has  every 
where,  the  advocate  of  temperance.  It  has  pleaded 
most  eloquently,  and  with  ti'emendous  effect.  The 
disease  has  searched  out  the  haunt  of  the  drunk- 
ard, and  has  seldom  left  it  without  bearing  away 
its  victim.  Even  moderate  drinkers  have  been  but 
little  better  off.  Ardent  spirits  in  any  shape  and  in 
any  quantity  have  been  highly  detrimental.  Some 
temperate  men  resorted  to  them,  during  the  pre- 
valence of  the  malady,  as  a  preventive,  or  to  re- 
move the  feelings  of  uneasiness  about  the  stomach, 
or  for  the  purpose  of  drowning  their  apprehen- 
sions, but  they  did  it  at  their  peril.  Intemperance 
of  any  kind,  but  particularly  in  the  use  of  distilled 
liquors,  has  been  a  more  productive  cause  of  cho- 
lera than  any  other,  and,  indeed,  than  all  others. 
Drunkards  and  tipplers  have  been  sought  out  with 
such  unerring  certainty  as  to  show  that  the  arrows 
of  death  have  not  been  dealt  out  with  indiscrimi- 
nation. There  seems  to  be  a  natural  affinity  be- 
tween cholera  and  ardent  spirits  !" 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  61 

Dr.  Rhmelancler,  who  was  deputed  from  New- 
York  to  visit  Canada  at  the  same  time,  says,  "  We 
may  ask  who  are  the  victims  of  this  disease.  I  an- 
swer, the  intemperate  it  invariably  cuts  off."  A 
INIontreal  paper  stated,  after  twelve  hundred  in  that 
city  had  been  attacked,  that  not  a  drunkard  attack- 
ed with  the  disease  had  recovered  ;  and  that  almost 
all  the  victims  were  at  least  moderate  drinkers. 

In  Paris,  the  thirty  thousand  who  died  of  that 
disease  were,  with  few  exceptions,  those  who 
drank  freely  intoxicating  liquor.  Nine-tenths  of 
those  who  died  in  Poland  were  stated  to  be  of  the 
same  class. 

In  St.  Petersburg  and  Moscow,  in  Russia,  the 
average  number  of  deaths  recorded  in  the  bills  of 
mortality  during  the  prevalence  of  the  cholera 
when  the  people  abstained  from  the  use  of  brandy, 
was  no  greater  than  when  they  used  it  during  the 
ordinary  months  of  health  :  brandy  drinking  and 
attendant  dissipation  may  have  killed  as  many,  in 
the  same  time,  as  the  cholera. 

The  London  Morning  Herald,  after  stating  that 
the  disease  fastened  its  deadly  grasp  upon  that 
class  of  men,  added,  •'  The  same  preference  for  the 
intemperate  and  uncleanly  has  characterized  the 
cholera  everywhere.  Intemperance  is  a  qualifica- 
tion which  it  i^ever  overlooks.  Often  has  it  passed 
harmless  over  a  wide  population  of  temperate  coun- 
try people,  and  poured  down,  as  an  overwhelming 
scourge,  upon  the  drunkards  of  some  distant  town." 

6 


62  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

Rammohun  Fingee,  the  famous  Indian  doctor, 
states  with  regard  to  India,  where  the  cholera  has 
most  prevailed,  "  People  who  do  not  take  opium 
or  spirits  do  not  take  the  disease,  even  when  they 
are  with  those  who  have  it." 

Such  statements  must,  of  course,  be  taken  with 
some  limitations,  and  are  understood  to  mean  that 
the  temperate  are  by  no  means  as  hkely  to  take 
the  disease  as  the  intemperate  ;  and  that  when 
they  do  take  it  they  are  much  more  likely  to  re- 
cover. Facts  abundantly  authorise  this  conclusion. 
Monsieur  Huber,  who  in  one  town  in  Russia  saw 
two  thousand  one  hundred  and  sixty  persons  fall 
by  this  disease,  says,  *'  It  is  a  remarkable  circum- 
stance, that  persons  given  to  drinking  have  been 
swept  away  like  flies.  In  Tiflis,  containing  twenty 
thousand  inhabitants,  every  drunkard  has  fallen." 

Dr.  Sewall,  of  Washington,  D.  C.  in  a  letter 
from  New- York  stated,  that,  of  two  hundred  and 
four  cholera  cases  in  the  Park  Hospital,  there 
were  only  six  temperate  persons ;  and  that  those 
had  all  recovered,  while  of  the  others  one  hundred 
and  twenty-two,  when  he  wrote,  had  died  ;  and 
that  the  facts  were  similar  in  all  the  other  hospi- 
tals. It  was  afterwards  stated  in  the  Journal  of 
Commerce,  that  more  than  nine-tenths  who  died 
at  the  Park  Hospital  were  intemperate  persons. 

In  Albany,  with  a  population  of  less  than  thirty 
thousand,  there  died  that  year  of  the  cholera  three 
hundred  and  thirty-six  persons,  over  eighteen  years 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  63 

of  age,  viz.  of  intemperate  persons,  one  hundred 
and  forty;  of  free  drinkers,  fifty-five;  of  moderate 
drinkers,  mostly  habitual,  one  hundred  and  thirty- 
one.  Of  those  who  were  strictly  temperate  there 
were  five ;  and  of  the  five  thousand  members  of 
the  Temperance  Society,  there  were  only  two. 
•Three  died  whose  habits  were  not  known. 

All  the  above  cases  were  particularly  examined, 
and  a  certificate  obtained  with  regard  to  each  one 
from  the  attending  physician.  The  truth  of  the 
above  statement  was  attested  by  the  Board  of 
Health,  consisting  of  eight  among  the  most  respect- 
able physicians  in  the  city. 

It  will  be  seen  that  of  the  three  hundred  and 
thirty-six  victims  of  this  disease,  all  but  ten  were 
either  moderate  or  immoderate  drinkers.  Oi'  those 
ten  the  habits  of  three  were  not  known.  Of  the 
remaining  seven  it  may  be  remarked  that  several 
died  of  relapse,  and  in  consequence,  as  is  believed, 
of  imprudence  or  neglect.  Some  were  wives  of 
drunken  husbands.  Had  there  been  no  more  deaths 
in  proportion  to  the  number  among  the  whole  po- 
pulation than  there  were  among  the  members  of 
the  Temperance  Society,  there  would  not  have 
been  a  dozen.  Of  the  three  hundred  and  thirty-six 
who  died,  ninety-seven  in  a  hundred,  as  appears 
from  the  above,  were  known  to  be  drinkers  of  al- 
coholic liquor. 

When  all  such  facts  are  taken  into  consideration 
it  must  be  evident,  to  all  who  are  acquainted  with 


g4  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

tliem,  that  the  number  of  deaths  occasioned  by  the 
drinking  of  such  liquor  must  be  exceedingly  great. 

Men  therefore  who  with  a  knowledge  of  these 
facts  continue  to  drink  it,  to  sell  it,  or  rent  build- 
ino-s  to  be  used  for  the  sale  of  it,  are  guilty  of  aid- 
ing in  the  destruction  of  their  fellow-men.  They 
inflict  a  deep  and  lasting  injury  on  the  communi- 
ty;  and  will  be  held  answerable  at  the  bar  of  Him 
who  hath  said,  "  Vengeance  is  mine,  I  will  repay, 
saith  Jehovah." 

In  the  language  of  Chancellor  "Walworth,  "  Dis- 
guise that  business  as  you  may,  it  is  still  in  its  true 
character  the  business  of  destroying  the  bodies  and 
souls  of  men.  The  vender  and  maker  of  spirits,  in 
the  whole  range  of  them,  from  the  pettiest  grocer 
to  the  most  extensive  distiller,  are  fairly  charge- 
able, not  only  with  supplying  the  appetite  for  spi- 
rits, but  with  the  making  of  that  unnatural  appe- 
tite ;  not  only  with  supplying  the  drunkard  with 
the  fuel  of  his  vices,  but  with  the  making  of  the 
drunkard."  And  they  will  be  held  responsible,  ac- 
cording to  their  influence,  for  the  effects. 

In  addition  to  the  sets  of  organs  which  have 
been  above  described,  there  is  another  set,  called 
muscles,  whose  business  is  to  give  motion,  or  enable 
the  will  to  control  the  limbs  and  other  parts  of  the 
body.  These  also  are  irritated,  chafed  and  crip- 
pled by  the  use  of  alcohol ;  and  they  show  it  in 
inflammations,  stiffness  of  joints,  cricks,  rheuma- 
tisms and  gout. 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  65 

There  is  another  set  of  these  organs  whose  bu- 
siness it  is  to  furnish  sensation.  They  are  spread 
over  the  surface  of  the  body  in  such  great  numbers 
that  you  cannot  stick  the  point  of  the  finest  cam- 
bric needle  into  any  place  without  hitting  some  of 
them,  and  thus  producing  pain.  They  seem  to  foim 
the  connecting  Hnk  between  the  body  and  the  mind, 
and  to  be  the  medium  through  which  one  acts  upon 
the  other.  Of  course  whatever  affects  them  will 
affect  not  the  body  only  but  also  the  soul.  Their 
seat  is  the  brain.  From  this  they  receive  excita- 
bility and  power  to  communicate  it  to  all  parts  of 
the  system.  On  these  depends  the  power  of  feel- 
in«^,  seeinf^,  hearing^,  tasting^  and  smelling^.  In  order 
to  furnish  excitement  pure  and  healthy,  the  brain 
must  itself  be  excited,  and  kept  in  a  healthy  con- 
dition. What  it  needs  for  this  is  that  which  is  fur- 
nished by  pure  arterial  blood  when  men  take  no- 
thing but  suitable  food,  drink,  exercise,  rest  and 
sleep.  For  this  it  eagerly  waits.  This  it  joyfully 
receives  and  instantly  communicates.  The  man 
feels  it  through  his  whole  frame,  in  a  glow  of 
health,  animation  and  buoyancy  of  spirits.  With 
almost  lightning  speed,  it  sends  a  quickening  in- 
fluence through  the  whole  man,  making  existence 
amidst  the  exuberance  of  Divine  kindness,  a  source 
of  constant  and  exquisite  delight. 

But  if,  as  it  stands  waiting  to  receive  and  com- 
municate the  bread  and  the  milk  of  heaven,  you 
throw    in   alcohol,    instead   of  bread,  you  give  i'; 

6* 


66  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

serpents ;  instead  of  milk,  scorpions.  They  go 
hissing  and  darting  their  scorpion-like  influence 
through  tlie  whole  man,  body  and  sou] ;  turning 
husbands,  once  affectionate  and  faithful,  into  de- 
mons ;  fathers,  loving  and  kind,  into  fiends ;  caus- 
ing men  to  become  the  slaves  of  Satan,  and  fitting 
them  for  destruction. 

In  one  State,  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  four 
men,  under  the  influence  of  this  poison,  killed 
their  own  wives.  One  of  them  killed  also  six  of 
his  children.  One  of  these  children  he  placed, 
with  his  own  hands,  on  the  fire  of  his  hearth,  and 
kept  it  there,  to  broil  to  death  under  the  eye  of 
its  father. 

The  judge  in  passing  sentence  on  another, 
whose  children  had  been  rendered  motherless, 
said,  "  By  one  fatal  act  your  wife  was  sent  to  the 
cold  and  silent  mansions  of  the  dead.  Your  chil- 
dren were  deprived  of  the  endearments  and  fos- 
tering care  of  their  mother,  and  you  are  to  ex- 
piate your  offence  upon  a  gallows.  Upon  a  review 
of  this  shocking  transaction  the  question  presents 
itself — what  could  so  have  perverted  your  nature  ; 
what  could  so  have  steeled  your  heart  1  The  an- 
swer is —  spirituous  liquor.  It  has  had  the  effect 
to  estrange  you  from  the  most  endearing  relations, 
from  the  ties  of  blood,  from  your  obligations  to 
your  fellow-beings,  and  to  your  Creator.  If  any 
further  evidence  were  wanting  to  manifest  the 
desolating  effects  of  ardent  spirits,  which   have 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  '       67 

moved  like  a  destroying  angel  over  our  land,  we 
have  it  in  the  astounding  fact,  that,  within  the 
last  two  months,  three  men  have  been  arraisrned 
before  me  on  charges  of  murdering  their  wives. 
All  these  offences  were  committed  by  intem- 
perate men." 

At  one  assize  in  England  nine  persons  were 
tried  for  murder.  Each  committed  the  crime  under 
the  influence  of  liquor.  Twenty-two  persons  who 
suffered  death  for  their  crimes,  and  whose  execu- 
tion was  attended  by  one  high-sheriff,  all  declared 
that  drinkino:  and  Sabbath-breakinor  bad  brought 
them  to  that  dismal  end. 

Did  alcohol  destroy  the  body  only,  however 
many  it  might  bring  to  the  grave,  its  effects  would 
not  be  80  dreadful,  but  it  destroys  also  the  soul. 
Not  that  it  annihilates  its  existence,  but  its  ex- 
cellence, usefulness  and  happiness.  It  cuts  off 
its  probation  and  its  hopes.  It  also  enfeebles  its 
powers,  corrupts  its  character,  and  aggravates  all 
its  moral  diseases,  while  it  tends  to  counteract  all 
the  means  which  God  has  provided  for  their  re- 
moval, and  thus  to  bring  upon  it  the  unending 
horrors  of  the  "  second  death." 

In  proof  of  its  increasing  the  wickedness  of  the 
Boul,  we  have  only  to  advert  to  the  above  facts. 
Nearly  all  the  convicts  in  all  our  prisons  are  per- 
sons who  drank  it.  In  the  jail  at  Ogdensburgh, 
New- York,  seven-eights  of  the  criminals  in  1838, 
were  intemperate  men.     In  Litchfield  county  jail 


68  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

Connecticut,  thirty-five  out  of  tliirty-nine  convicts 
were  drunkards.  In  the  State  Prison  of  Ohio  in 
1829,  of  one  hundred  and  thirty-four  convicts, 
ninety-eight  acknowledged  themselves  to  have 
been  intemperate.  Of  six  hundred  and  forty- 
eeven  in  the  Auburn  State  Prison,  three  hundred 
and  forty-six  were  under  the  influence  of  liquor 
when  they  committed  the  crimes  for  which  they 
were  imprisoned ;  and  more  than  ninety  out  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  were  of  the  same  class 
at  the  State  Prison  in  Wethersfield,  Connecticut. 
Of  two  hundred  and  three  who  were  committed  to 
the  Auburn  State  Prison  in  one  year,  all  drank 
alcohol,  except  one.  Of  forty-four  murders,  all, 
according  to  the  testimony  of  the  witnesses,  were 
committed  by  intemperate  men,  or  upon  intem- 
perate men,  or  those  who  at  the  time  of  the  mur- 
der were  under  the  power  of  strong  drink. 

A  distinguished  lawyer  testified  that  of  eleven 
cases  of  murder  in  which  he  was  called  to  defend 
the  prisoner,  ten  were  occasioned  by  spirituous 
liquor;  and  that  nine  out  of  ten  of  all  cases  of 
assault  and  battery,  affrays  and  riots,  were  from 
the  same  cause.  Another  lawyer  testified  that  ot 
eleven  other  cases  of  murder  tiied  at  the  courts  in 
which  he  practiced,  in  every  case  the  murderer  or 
the  murdered  were  intemperate  ;  and  in  most  in- 
stances both  were  so.  With  regard  to  other  cases 
of  personal  violence,  assaults  with  intent  to  kill, 
and  common  assaults,  be  says  he  has  witnessed 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  69 

trials  almost  innumerable,  and  cannot  recollect  a 
case  in  which  one  or  both  the  parties  were  not 
more  or  less  intoxicated.  He  has  also  witnessed 
very  many  cases  of  trial  for  larceny,  and  can  re- 
collect but  one  instance  in  which  the  prisoner  was 
not  in  the  habit  of  drinking  liquor,  or  was  not  un- 
der its  power  when  the  crime  was  committed. 
Another  lawyer  states  that  in  the  course  of  his 
practice  he  has  been  called  to  examine  twenty 
cases  of  murder,  and  that  all  were  committed  in 
consequence  of  intemperance. 

J.  O.  Cole,  Police  Justice  of  Albany,  New- York, 
testified  that  of  fifty  criminal  cases  brought  before 
him  in  one  week,  forty-eight  originated  in  drink- 
ing ;  and  that  ninety-six  in  a  hundred  of  all  crimi- 
nal cases  which  he  had  investiofated  durinri:  tlie 
year,  might  be  traced  to  the  same  cause.  If  he 
wljo  "  was  a  murderer  from  the  beginning,  and 
abode  not  in  the  truth,"  were  to  seek  for  a  drink 
lo  make  men  in  character  like  himself,  bring  them 
under  his  power,  fit  them  to  do  his  work,  and  pre- 
pare them  for  his  place  of  torment,  he  might  find 
it  in  alcohol.  It  is  suited  to  prepare  men  for,  and 
incline  them  to  engage  and  continue  in  his  service. 
Let  men  live  under  its  influence,  and  he  will  lead 
them  captive  at  his  pleasure,  and  use  them  as  his 
slaves.  It  blinds  the  understandinof,  sears  the  con- 
science,  pollutes  the  affections,  hardens  the  heart, 
debases,  palsies  and  ruins  all  the  powers  of  tho 
soul ;   blots  out  the  loveliness  of  virtue,  and  the 


70  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

hate  fulness  of  vice ;  leads  men  to  call  good  evil, 
and  evil  good ;  put  light  for  darkness  and  dark- 
ness for  light;  sweet  for  bitter  and  bitter  for 
Bweet.  It  lessens  the  power  of  motives  to  do  right, 
and  increases  the  power  of  motives  to  do  wrong. 

Temptations  to  the  commission  of  crime,  which 
the  mind  when  not  under  the  power  of  strong 
drink  will  withstand,  will  lead  it,  when  it  is,  to 
commit  the  crime.  Iniquity,  from  which  the  soul 
before  recoiled  with  abhorrence,  becomes  the  ele- 
ment of  its  delicious  revel ;  and  crimes,  from  the 
thought  of  which  it  revolted,  it  now  commits  with 
greediness.  So  perfectly  is  this  understood,  that 
the  agents  of  Satan  often  furnish  it  on  purpose  to 
lead  men  to  do  his  work. 

In  1833  a  young  man  committed  a  murder.  He 
Avas  tried  and  pronounced  guilty.  "  Yes,"  said  he, 
'*  I  am  guilty,"  and  pointing  to  his  mother  who 
stood  by,  he  said,  "  Slie  was  the  cause  of  it."  Shq 
had  become  incensed  against  a  man  and  resolved 
to  take  his  life.  She  agreed  with  her  son  that  he 
should  shoot  him.  The  time,  place,  and  circum- 
stances were  fixed.  A  pistol  was  provided  and 
put  in  order;  but  she  was  afraid  that  her  son,  be- 
ing a  young  man,  when  he  came  to  the  trial  would 
shrink  back.  So  she  got  a  bottle  of  whiskey  and 
went  with  him  to  the  spot.  The  man  came  along, 
not  suspecting  any  thing.  The  son  relented,  and 
said  he  could  not  shoot  him.  The  mother  pro- 
duced the  whiskey,  and  said,  *' drink  that."    He 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  71 

drank  it,  shot  the  man,  and  was  hanged.  She  was 
the  cause,  whiskey  the  means,  the  death  of  her 
neighbor  and  son  the  result. 

It  renders  the  soul  reckless,  and  leads  it  to  rush 
headlong  upon  its  ruin.  Under  its  influence,  a 
Imsband  killed  his  wife,  while  nursing  her  babe. 
In  the  atjonies  of  death  she  was  found  welterino- 
in  her  blood,  and  pressing  her  babe  to  her  bosom 
with  an  affection  stronger  than  death. 

A  father  took  a  little  child  by  his  legs  and  dashed 
his  head  against  the  house,  and  then,  with  a  boot- 
jack, beat  out  his  brains.  Once  that  man  was  a 
respectable  merchant,  in  good  standing,  but  he 
drank  alcohol ;  his  wife  was  driven  from  her  home, 
and  his  little  child  was  murdered. 

A  gentleman  writes,  "  I  was  called  yesterday 
to  a  house  where  a  man  had  just  murdered  his 
wife.  The  purple  gore  was  flowing,  and  life  was 
not  extinct  when  I  arrived.  The  husband  was 
intoxicated,  and  the  wife  speedily  expired.  I  at- 
tended the  inquest,  and  the  verdict  was,  "  Wilful 
murder." 

The  day  before  a  child  was  burned  to  death, 
while  both  the  father  and  mother  were  so  drunk 
that  they  could  render  it  no  assistance. 

A  family  consisting  of  a  father,  mother,  and  a 
son  about  twenty-two  years  old,  bought  a  quantity 
of  rvmi.  The  next  day  an  altercation  took  place 
between  the  mother  and  son.  He  said  he  wished 
he   was   dead,    and  if  she  would   get  a  rope^  he 


72  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

would  hang  himself.  She  got  a  rope.  He  tool? 
it,  went  a  few  rods  from  the  house,  and  hung  him- 
self. He  was  found  suspended  from  a  tree,  and 
the  mother  was  told  that  he  was  dead.  She  said, 
"  I  am  glad  of  it,  and  I  hope  he  is  in  hell."  She 
made  her  way  to  the  spot,  took  from  his  pocket  a 
bottle  containing  liquor,  and  drank  to  intoxication. 
Not  long  after  her  husband  was  found  on  the  floor 
of  his  house,  dead. 

A  shocking  crime  was  committed  in  which  a 
man  was  left  for  dead.  He  afterwards  revived, 
and  was  called  as  a  witness.  The  mao^istrate  asked 

o 

him  if  the  men  who  committed  the  crime  had 
been  drinking.  He  said,  "  I  wonder  that  a  gentle- 
man of  your  knowledge  should  ask  such  a  ques- 
tion. Surely  you  do  not  think  they  would  come 
without  preparing  themselves."  It  was  so  uni- 
versal for  men  to  prepare  themselves  for  crime  in 
that  way,  that  he  wondered  the  magistrate  should 
have  a  doubt  on  the  subject. 

A  distinguished  magistrate  stated  that  many 
convicts  had  assured  him  that  it  was  necessary, 
before  they  could  commit  crimes,  to  have  recourse 
to  ardent  spirit ;  and  that  they  resorted  to  it  to 
prepare  themselves  for  their  work.  Said  one  of 
tliem,  **  I  could  not  enter  your  house  in  the  dead 
of  nio'ht,  and  take  the  chance  of  your  shooting 
me  while  in  it,  or  of  my  being  hanged  when  I 
got  out  of  it,  unless  I  were  to  get  well  primed 
first."     But  when  such  men  are   "  well  primed  " 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  73 

they  can  do  any  thing  to  which  sin  or  Satan  may 
tempt  them ;  and  continuing  that  course  they  can 
withstand  all  the  means  which  infinite  wisdom 
and  kindness  will  ever  use  to  recover  them  from 
the  snare  of  the  destroyer.  All  therefoiB  who 
continue  to  use  it  as  a  beverage,  to  furnish  it  by 
sale  or  otherwise  to  be  so  used,  who  rent  buildings 
for  the  sale  of  it,  or  are  accessory  to  the  continu- 
ance of  such  use  of  it,  are  aiding  in  increasing  the 
wickedness,  augmenting  the  guilt,  and  perpetuat- 
ing the  wretchedness  of  their  fellow-men. 

Is  that  an  employment  worthy  of  immortal 
minds,  which  are  created  by  the  power,  preserved 
by  the  goodness,  and  redeemed  by  the  grace  of  the 
Savior ;  and  which  are  capable  of  bearing  his  im- 
age, proclaiming  his  praise,  and  rising  with  him 
from  glory  to  glory,  or  as  outcasts  from  his  pre- 
sence, of  sinking  from  depth  to  depth  in  pollution-, 
infamy  and  woe  ]  Is  it  an  employment,  Avhich, 
with  a  full  knowledge  of  its  effects,  is  fit  for  any 
one,  not  a  fiend  incarnate,  or  who  would  not,  for 
money,  make  others  such  1  though  at  the  sacrifice 
of  all  their  interests,  the  honor  of  their  Maker,  and 
the  good  of  the  universe !  It  is  an  employment 
which,  from  beginning  to  end  is  immoral,  vicious^ 
DESTRUCTIVE.  Those  who  continue  it,  with  a 
knowledge  of  its  nature  and  effects,  are  **  treasur- 
ing up  wrath  against  the  day  of  wrath,  and  the  re- 
velation of  the  righteous  judgement  of  God." 

In  the  language  of  Chief  Justice  Cranch,  of 
7 


74  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL, 

Washington,  D.  C.  "I  know  that  the  cup  is  poi- 
soned, I  know  that  it  may  cause  death,  that  it  may 
cause  more  than  death,  that  it  may  lead  to  crime, 
to  sin,  to  the  tortures  of.  everlasting  remorse.  Am 
I  not  then  a  murderer  ]  Am  I  not  worse  than  a 
murderer — as  much  worse  as  the  soul  is  better  than 
the  body  ]  If  ardent  spirits  were  nothing  but  a 
deadly  poison,  if  they  did  not  inflame  all  the  evil 
passions,  if  they  did  not  dim  that  heavenly  light 
which  the  Almighty  has  implanted  in  our  bosoms 
to  guide  us  through  the  obscure  passages  of  our 
pilgrimage,  if  they  did  not  quench  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  our  hearts,  they  would  be  comparatively  harm- 
less. It  is  their  moral  effect ;  it  is  the  ruin  of  the 
soul  which  they  produce,  that  renders  them  so 
dreadful.  The  difference  between  death  by  simple 
poison  and  death  by  habitual  intoxication  may  ex- 
tend to  the  whole  difference  between  everlasting 
happiness  and  eternal  death." 

VI.  But  it  is  said,  *'  It  is  not  the  making  of  in- 
toxicating liquor,  or  the  selling  of  it,  that  does  the 
mischief;  it  is  the  drinking  of  it."  But  does  not 
the  making  and  selling  minister  to  the  drinking  ] 
Does  it  not  teach  the  fatally  erroneous  doctrine, 
that  the  drinking  of  it  is  right,  and  does  it  not  aid 
in  perpetuating  it  1 

Suppose  a  traitor  to  his  country,  who  in  time 
of  war  should  manufacture  and  sell  fire  arms  to 
the  enemy,  should  say,  "  It  is  not  the  making  or 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  75 

selling  of  fire  arms  that  does  the  mischief,  it  is  the 
usi7ig  of  them."  Would  that  shield  him  from  his 
country's  indignation,  or  save  him  from  the  doom 
of  a  traitor  1 

"  True,"  says  a  man,  "  the  opening  of  those 
grog-shops,  and  selling  spirit  by  the  glass,  is  aho- 
minahle."  In  the  lanffuaofe  of  Judfre  Dacraett, 
**  Over  every  grog-shop  ought  to  be  written  in 
great  capitals,  *  The  way  to  hell,  leading  down  to 
the  chambers  of  death.'  But  I  do  not  keep  a  grog- 
shop :  mine  is  a  wholesale  establishment.  I  sell 
only  in  large  quantities."  Is  that  any  better  ] 
Suppose  the  counterfeiter  should  say,  "  This  pass- 
ing counterfeit  money  by  dollars  and  cents  is  hor- 
rible ;  but  I  only  make  it,  import  it,  or  sell  it  in 
large  quantities.  Would  that  keep  him,  or  ought 
it  to  keep  him  from  the  state  prison  ]  Is  not  the 
making  and  the  selling  of  it,  in  large  quantities, 
criminal,  as  well  as  in  small  quantities  1 

A  traitor  might  say,  **  I  never  sell  to  the  enemy 
a  single  gun,  or  a  sword  ;  that  would  be  treason.  I 
only  sell  in  large  quantities,  and  from  a  respecta- 
ble establishment."  Would  that  save  his  life  ? 

The  making  of  fire-aiTns  for  the  enemy,  and  the 
selling  of  them,  by  wholesale  as  well  as  retail, 
ARE  TREASON,  and  will  subject  him  who  does  it 
to  a  traitor's  doom.  It  is  a  principle  in  law,  that 
the  perpetrator  and  the  accessory  in  the  commis- 
sion of  crime  are  both  guilty.  Men  have  been 
banged  for  violating  this  principle.  The  same  prin- 


76  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

ciple  applies  to  the  law  of  God.  If  a  man  lias  an 
ox  that  is  known  to  be  dangerous,  and  he  does  not 
keep  him  in,  hut  lets  him  go  out,  and  that  ox  kills 
a  man,  the  owner  is  guilty.  Under  the  Old  Tes- 
tament dispensation,  such  a  man,  by  the  direction 
of  God,  was  to  be  put  to  death.  It  is  a  great  crime 
for  a  man  to  endanger  the  lives,  corrupt  the  charac- 
ter, and  feed  the  vices  of  his  fellow-men.  If  he  does 
it, he  will  be  held  responsible  at  the  Divine  tribunal. 
"  But,"  says  another,  **  if  I  should  not  sell, 
somebody  else  would.  Men  will  have  it,  and  why 
may  not  I  have  the  profits  as  well  as  others."  So 
the  man-stealer,  the  highway-robber,  and  the  mur- 
derer may  say,  "  There  is  such  a  good  opportu- 
nity to  make  money,  somebody  will  commit  the 
crime  if  I  do  not,  and  why  may  I  not  have  the 
profits  of  it  as  well  as  others  V  Because,  if  you 
do,  you  will  be  a  man-stealer,  a  robber,  or  a  murr 
derer,  like  the  others  ;  and  will  be  partaker  of 
their  woes.  The  money  you  gain  hj  doing  wrong 
will  only  be  a  curse  to  you :  you  had  better  be 
without  it,  and  rest  contented  with  what  you  can 
gain  by  diligence,  economy,  and  the  blessing  of 
heaven,  in  doing  right.  That  is  all  to  which  you 
can  get  a  just  title,  all  that  you  ought  to  wish  for, 
and  all  which,  if  you  are  a  wise  man,  you  will  be 
willing  to  have.  The  v/ages  of  sin,  as  are  those 
made  by  the  sale  of  alcohol  to  be  used  as  a  beve- 
rage, will  "  at  the  last,"  like  alcohol  itself,  "  bite 
like  a  serpent  and  sting  like  an  adder." 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  77 

It  is  a  business  which  is  dangerous  to  those  who 
pursue  it,  as  well  as  to  others.  In  one  town,  in 
twenty-two  years,  twenty-nine  men  undertook  to 
make  money  by  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquor. 
Five  afterwards  abandoned  it  as  a  bad  business, 
and  four  died  drunkards.  Twenty,  when  this  ac- 
count was  written,  were  living,  all  drunkards, 
poor,  and  most  of  them  a  town  charge. 

In  one  part  of  a  single  city  there  were  sixty- 
seven  retailers  of  spirituous  liquor.  When  this 
account  was  written  fifty-three  were  dead,  and 
forty-three  died  drunkards.  In  two  counties  for 
forty  years  more  than  half  the  men  who  followed 
the  business  of  selling  strong  drink  became?  drunk- 
ards, and  more  than  twice  as  many  of  their  chil- 
dren in  proportion  to  the  number  became  drunk- 
ards, as  of  the  children  of  others. 

Within  the  last  twenty  years,  in  one  county, 
two  hundred  and  ten  persons  have  been  licensed 
to  sell  intoxicatincT  drink.  After  a  thorouo^h  exam- 
ination  it  has  been  found  that  two  hundred  have 
not  increased  their  property,  that  a  hundred  and 
eighty  have  lost  the  whole,  or  a  part  of  the  pro- 
perty with  which  they  entered  into  business ;  one 
hundred  and  fifty  have  become  drunkards,  and 
many,  very  many  of  their  children.  Thus  the 
traffic  destroys  many  of  those  who  pursue  it,  as 
well  as  others.  Its  fruits  are  bitterness  and  death. 
It  is  a  business  which  the  Lord  hath  cursed. 

"Ah,"  says  one,  "those   men  took  too   much? 

7* 


78  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

they  sold  it  too,  probably,  to  drunkards.  That  is 
always  mischievous ;  but  I  never  sell  to  drunk- 
ards. I  sell  only  to  sober  men."  Is  that  any  bet- 
ter 1  Is  it  not  worse  ]  Does  it  not  do  more  to  per- 
petuate drunkenness  and  all  its  evils  than  the  sell- 
ing of  the  poison  even  to  drunkards  themselves  ] 
Suppose  there  is  a  quantity  of  poisonous  food  in 
the  market,  and  that  the  more  a  man  takes  of  it 
the  more  his  appetite  for  it  is  increased,  the  less 
reason  he  has,  and  the  more  he  will  continue  to 
take,  till  it  kills  him.  By  the  quantity  it  can  be 
bought  cheap,  because  it  is  poisoned ;  and  in 
small  quantities  it  would  sell  high  to  those  who 
like  it,  because  under  its  influence  they  are  beside 
themselves.  They  imagine  they  are  rich,  when 
they  are  poor;  strong,  when  they  are  weak;  and 
well,  when  they  are  ready  to  die.  Knowing  its 
nature  and  effects,  you  purchase  and  sell  it,  in 
order  to  make  money.  Your  customers  sicken 
and  die ;  but  before  they  die  they  become  de- 
ranged. One  kills  his  father,  another  his  mother, 
his  wife,  or  children.  Another  kills  his  neighbors, 
or  their  children.  No  man's  life  is  safe.  The 
whole  community  is  in  an  uproar.  The  people 
assemble  and  remonstrate  with  you,  who,  to  make 
money,  will  sell  poisonous  food. 

"  To  sell  to  the  sick  and  deranged,"  you  say, 
"  would  be  most  iniquitous.  The  man  who  does 
it  ought  to  be  hung,  or  at  least  imprisoned  for  life  ; 
but  I  sell  only  to  the  healthy.    I  never  sell  to  the 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  79 

sick.  When  I  see  a  man  so  poisoned  that  he  be- 
jjins  to  staGfQfer,  or  so  derano^ed  that  he  talks  about 
killing  his  father,  or  his  mother,  I  turn  him  over 
to  others,  and  let  them  take  the  responsibility  of 
killing  him  (especially  if  he  is  poor  and  cannot 
pay  me.")  Is  that  any  better  *?  If  you  and  men 
like  you  would  never  sell  to  the  healthy,  but  only 
to  those  who  are  so  poisoned  that  they  cannot 
live,  the  evil  would  soon  cure  itself.  You  would 
kill  all  your  customers,  and  make  no  new  ones. 
But  the  difficulty  is,  you  sell  to  the  healthy,  and 
poison  them ;  so  that  by  the  time  the  father  is 
dead,  the  son  is  ready  to  take  his  place. 

So  with  men  who  sell  poisonous  drink.  If  they 
sold  to  none  but  drunkards,  they  would  soon  kill 
them,  and  the  evil  would  cease.  But  the  difficulty 
is — they  sell  to  sober  men.  No  sooner  have  they 
killed  one  generation  than  they  have  prepared  an- 
other to  be  killed  in  the  same  way.  That  is  ahomi- 
nahle,  and  ought  to  receive  universal  execration. 

Is  it  not  as  really  wicked  to  make  drunkards  of 
sober  men,  as  it  is  to  kill  drunkards  ?  Ask  that 
widowed  mother  who  did  her  the  gi'eatest  injur}'", 
he  who  killed  her  long  lost,  drunken  husband;  or 
he  who  made  a  drunkard  of  her  only  son,  the  hope 
of  her  youth  and  the  support  of  her  declining 
years  1  Ask  those  orphan  children,  who  did  them 
the  greatest  injury,  the  man  who  made  a  drunkard 
of  their  kind  affectionate  father,  and  thus  blasted 
all  their  hopes ;   turning  home,  sweet  home,  into 


80  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

an  emblem  of  perdition  ;  obliging  them  and  their 
sick  mother  to  flee  at  the  dead  of  night,  in  the 
midst  of  winter,  without  a  covering  or  a  shelter, 
till  she  was  going  down  with  a  broken  heart  to  an 
untimely  grave  ;  or  the  man,  who,  after  long  years 
of  this  unutterable  anguish,  sold  him  the  last  glass 
which  closed  his  eyes,  and  caused  in  that  long  tu- 
multuous habitation,  a  great  calm  ]  Can  you  doubt 
which  of  the  two  did  that  lovely  family  the  great- 
est mischief?  If  the  guilt  of  the  latter  may  be  that 
of  murder,  what  must  be  that  of  the  former  ] 

You  do  nothing  but  knowingly,  with  your  eyes 
open,  in  view  of  the  facts,  persevere  in  the  busi- 
ness of  making  drunkards ;  turning  sober  youth 
and  respectable  men  into  sots  ;  preparing  them,  as 
soon  as  one  generation  of  drunkards  has  gone,  to 
roll  the  burning  curse  down  on  the  next  genera- 
tion, and  induce  them  to  roll  it  onward ;  and  so, 
you  hope  to  escape.  Vain  hope !  If  any  beings 
in  human  shape  will  receive  the  lasting  execration 
of  an  intelligent  and  thoroughly  temperate  and  vir- 
tuous community,  it  will  be  those  who,  notwith- 
standing all  that  can  be  done  by  sound  argument, 
kind  persuasion,  the  tears  of  the  widow  and  the 
gioans  of  the  orphan,  will  continue,  in  full  view 
of  the  facts,  for  the  purpose  of  making  money,  to 
do  that  which  they  have  reason  to  believe  will  turn 
temperate  men  into  drunkards,  and  entail  upon 
their  families  and  posterity  the  innumerable  evils 
and  untold  agonies  of  the  drunkard's  woes. 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  81 

By  all  that  is  dear  on  earth  and  in  heaven,  you 
ought  to  be  persuaded,  never,  no  never,  to  sell 
the  drunkard's  poison  to  sober  men,  least  of  all  to 
young  men. 

Suppose  that  all  the  evils  which  you  bring  upon 
the  drunkard  and  his  family,  should  come  upcn 
you  and  your  family.  Suppose  as  you  approach' 
they  should  be  obliged  to  flee  for  their  lives,  or 
should  be  turned  out  at  midnight  in  the  depth  of 
v/inter  without  a  covering  or  a  shelter,  and  foj* 
years  should  be  made  so  utterly  wretched  that 
even  your  death  would  be  a  relief  to  them.  Would 
you  not  think  that  the  man  who,  to  get  your  money, 
should  knowingly  continue  to  bring  such  evils  up- 
on them,  must  be  indeed  a  wretch  ]  And  if  you 
continue  knowingly  to  sell  that  which  brings  such 
evils  upon  others,  are  not  you  that  man  ] 

'*  But  I  have  a  license ;  I  have  a  license."  Sup- 
pose y(5u  have ;  does  that  altar  the  nature  of  the 
business,  or  prevent  its  effects  1  Will  that  soothe 
the  heart-broken  widow,  or  feed  the  famishingr 
children  1  Licensed  selling  will  make  drunkards 
as  well  as  unlicensed;  and  the  woes  which  it 
brings  upon  suffering  innocence  are  as  dreadful. 
A  man  bought  a  glass  of  liquor  of  one  who  was 
licensed ;  he  drank  it,  fell  under  the  wheels  of 
his  wagon,  and  was  crushed  to  death.  Did  that 
license  assuage  the  anguish  of  his  father  or  his 
mother,  his  wife  or  his  children  ? 

Suppose  a  man  should  be  licensed  to  throw  poi- 


82  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

son  into  your  well,  would  that  justify  him  in  doing 
it?  No  more  will  it  justify  you  in  selling  poison  to 
be  mixed  with  water  which  is  drawn  from  the 
well.  Men  have  been  licensed  to  keep  gambling 
houses,  to  establish  brothels,  and  commit  other 
gross  iniquities.  The  licensing  of  men  to  commit 
sin  does  not  alter  its  nature,  prevent  its  conse- 
quences, or  do  away  its  guilt.  Nor  will  it  pre- 
vent the  ruin  of  those  who  continue  knowingly  to 
practise  it. 

"  But  if  I  should  not  continue  to  sell  intoxicat- 
ing liquor,  I  could  not  support  my  family."  If  it 
were  true  that  you  could  not  support  your  family 
in  any  other  way,  it  would  be  better  for  the  pub- 
lic to  support  you  and  your  family  in  the  alms- 
house. But  it  is  not  true.  The  declaration  is  a  libel 
upon  your  Maker.  Has  he  made  it  impossible  to 
support  your  family  except  by  a  business  vjhich 
destroys  other  families  1  No.  Nine-tenths  of  all  the 
families  are  supported  in  other  ways,  and  the  other 
tenth  can  be  supported. 

"  But  in  that  case  I  must  change  my  business." 
So  must  the  thief,  the  highway  robber,  and  the 
murderer.  If  they  have  been  accustomed  to  sup- 
port their  families  in  their  ways,  and  are  in  future 
to  support  them  in  other  ways,  they  must  change 
their  business.  But  is  that  any  reason  why  they 
should  not  change  it  ]  They  have  no  right  even  to 
support  a  family  in  wrong  ways.  No  more  has 
the  seller  of  intoxicating,  drink.    Family  or  no  fa- 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  83 

mily,  he  is  bound  without  delay  to  cease  to  do  evil. 
Let  him  do  right,  and  in  well  doing  trust  his  fa- 
mily to  Him  who  feeds  the  sparrow,  clothes  the 
lily,  and  opens  his  hand  and  supplies  the  wants 
of  every  living  thing.  He  will  find  that  there  is  no 
need  of  destroying  other  families  in  order  to  sup- 
port his  own. 

Suppose  when  he  is  about  to  commence  his  bu- 
siness as  a  liquor  seller,  or  when  intending  to  con- 
tinue it,  he  should  tell  the  public  honestly  what 
will  be  its  effects.  Suppose  he  should  write  in  ca- 
pitals on  his  sign-board  what  his  traffic  will  do : 
thai  so  many  it  will  make  paupers,  send  to  the 
almshouse,  and  oblige  others  to  support ;  that  so 
many  more  it  will  excite  to  the  commission  of 
crimes,  and  thus  tax  the  people  for  their  prose- 
cution;  that  so  many  it  will  send  to  the  jail,  so 
many  to  the  state  prison,  and  so  many  to  the  gal- 
lows ;  that  so  many  it  will  deprive  of  reason ;  so 
many  it  will  visit  with  distressing  sickness ;  and 
that  in  so  many  cases,  diseases,  that  would  have 
been  comparatively  harmless,  it  will  render  fatal ; 
in  so  many  cases  it  will  cause  sudden  death ;  so 
many  wives  it  will  make  widows,  and  so  many 
children  orphans ;  in  so  many  cases  it  will  cause 
children  to  grow  up  in  idleness,  ignorance,  vice 
and  crime ;  and  in  so  many  other  cases  prevent 
the  efficacy  of  the  Gospel,  and  ruin  the  souls  of 
men. 

As  all  faces  gather  paleness  in  view  of  approach- 


84:  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

ing  desolation,  and  inquire  how  can  any  human 
being  consent  to  prosecute  such  a  business  ?  sup- 
pose you  answer,  **  If  I  should  not  do  it  I  must 
change  my  business  ;"  or,  "  I  could  not  support  my 
family;"  or,  *'  I  have  a  license;"  or,  **  I  sell  only 
to  sober  men  ;"  or,  *'  If  I  should  not  sell  somebody 
else  would;"  or,  "  I  sell  only  in  large  quantities." 
Would  any,  or  all,  and  a  thousand  more  such  ex- 
cuses, lessen  the  evils  or  diminish  the  guilt  of  such 
a  traffic  %  Would  it  ward  off  the  indignation  of  an 
outraged  community,  or  in  any  measure  shield  you 
from  the  righteous  retribution  of  an  offended  God  % 
Truth  answers,  No.  But  would  it  be  any  worse 
for  a  man  to  write  out  beforehand,  and  tell  the 
people  honestly  what  he  will  do,  than  it  is  for  him, 
without  warning,  to  go  forward  and  do  it? 

But  it  is  said,  "  He  does  not  bring  those  evils 
upon  others  without  their  own  voluntary  agency." 
That  in  many  cases  may  be  true,  but  it  is  as  really 
wicked  to  injure  men  through  their  own  volunta- 
ry agency  as  in  any  other  way.  It  is  wicked  to  in- 
duce men,  or  tempt  them  to  injure  themselves,  or 
to  aid  them  in  doing  it.  Especially  is  it  wicked, 
as  in  the  liquor  trade,  to  injure  their  unoffending 
wives  and  children,  and  bring  untold  calamities  on 
others.  The  fact  that  liquor  sellers  do  this,  through 
the  voluntary  but  perverted  agency  of  the  buyers, 
instead  of  lessening  often  increases  their  guilt ;  for 
?hey  involve  in  sin  and  consequent  misery  not  o^ly 
themselves  but  their  fellow-men. 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  85 

To  make  this  plain,  take  a  case.  Here  are  two 
men.  One  of  them  goes  out  at  midnight,  and  to 
obtain  money  kills  a  father.  The  whole  family  are 
in  mourning.  By  and  by  he  goes  out  again,  and 
o  obtain  more  money  kills  the  mother.  The  chil- 
dren are  orphans.  Soon  he  kills  one  of  them,  then 
another,  and  another,  till  the  whole  family  are 
dead.  They  were  murdered,  all  murdered  to  ob- 
tain their  money ;  but  not  by  themselves.  They 
fell  prematurely,  but  not  by  their  own  hands. 
They  were  innocent  of  that  great  transgression ; 
and  are  followed  by  the  kind  remembrances  and 
the  weeping  sympathies  of  all  the  people,  with  the 
exception  of  the  man  who  killed  them.  The  guilt 
fastens  and  the  retribution  will  fasten,  only  on  him. 

But  the  other  man  does  not  kill  the  father  or 
the  mother,  or  the  children,  directly  with  his  own 
hand.  To  obtain  their  money  he  sells  the  father 
poisonous  drink.  That  drink  forms  an  intempe- 
rate appetite.  That  appetite  the  seller  continues 
to  feed,  until  the  man  becomes  a  drunkard.  His 
wife  becomes  a  drunkard;  the  children  become 
drunkards,  and  spread  the  influence  of  drunkards 
through  the  neighborhood.  He  furnishes  the  known 
cause  of  their  drunkenness,  and  feeds  the  fuel  of 
their  vice,  till  the  father,  the  mother,  and  the  chil- 
dren, one  after  another,  are  all  dead,  and,  as  has 
actually  been  the  case,  lie  side  by  side  in  the 
drunkard's  grave. 

Which  is  the  most  guilty  man  ?   Money  was  the 

8 


86  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

object  in  both  cases.  One  permitted  the  whole 
family  to  go  down,  each  innocent ;  the  other  know- 
ingly assisted  to  render  all  guilty,  each  of  his  own 
death.  Which  is  the  most  guilty  man  1  "I  speak 
as  to  wise  men  ;  judge  ye."  To  their  own  omnis- 
cient, infallible,  righteous  Judge  they  both  must 
give  account.    We  bid  them  prepare  to  meet  him. 

"  But  our  fathers  made  and  sold  intoxicating 
liquors,  and  drank  them.  Were  not  they  good 
men]" 

Some  of  them,  we  trust,  were  good  men.  And 
good  men,  or  those  who  professed  to  be  good,  once 
carried  on  the  slave  trade,  had  a  multiplicity  of 
wives,  and  did  many  other  wicked  things.  But 
they  had  not  all  the  light  which  we  have  with 
regard  to  the  nature  and  effects  of  those  things, 
and  the  will  of  God  with  regard  to  them.  The 
times  of  that  ignorance  he  may  have  '*  winked  at," 
but  now  he  "  commandeth  all  men  everywhere," 
who  know  his  will,  "  to  repent"  of  all  such  sins  ; 
because  "  he  hath  appointed  a  day  in  which  he 
will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness,  by  that  Man 
whom  he  hath  ordained,  whereof  he  hath  given  as- 
sui'ance  to  all  men,  in  that  he  hath  raised  him  from 
the  dead." 

The  principle  which  applies  to  this  case  is  that 
to  which  our  Savior  referred  when  he  said,  *.*  If  I 
had  not  come  and  spoken  unto  them,  they  had  not 
had  sin,  but  now  they  have  no  cloak  for  their  sin." 
As  to  light  and  knowledge,  it  is  repuired  of  men 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL.  Si 

according  to  what  they  have,  or  might  have,  and 
not  according  to  what  they  have  not,  and  cannot 
have.  Sins  committed  in  comparative  darkness 
and  consequent  ignorance  are  less  guilty  than 
those  committed  against  light  and  knowledge.  Our 
fathers  had  not  the  means  of  knowing,  to  the  ex- 
tent that  we  have,  that  intoxicating  liquors  are 
needless  and  hurtful ;  that  they  cause  a  great  por- 
tion of  all  the  pauperism,  crimes,  sickness,  insanity, 
wretchedness  and  death  in  the  community.  The 
facts  had  not  then  been  collected,  as  they  now 
have  been,  and  spread  out  before  the  public.  If, 
with  the  knowledge  of  facts  that  we  have,  men 
continue  to  act  as  those  did  who  had  not  this 
knowledge,  they  will  accumulate  greater  guilt, 
and  ripen  for  more  aggravated  condemnation. 

To  all  such  I  would  say  with  the  greatest  kind- 
ness, and  the  greatest  plainness,  relinquish  at  once 
and  for  ever,  I  entreat  you,  that  vicious,  criminal, 
DESTRUCTIVE  employment. 

Could  the  poisons  that  you  have  furnished,  all 
come  back  and  tell  you  the  history  of  their  effects  ; 
could  they  describe  to  you  all  their  consequences 
to  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men ;  could  they  show 
you  the  ruined  fathers,  the  heart-broken  mothers 
and  agonizing  children,  who,  through  your  instru- 
mentaUty,  have  gone  down,  self  destroyers,  to  the 
grave  ;  could  they  uncover  to  your  view  the  drunk- 
ard's eternity,  and  go  with  you  through  a  few  of 
the  millions  of  those  ages   of  endless  being,  in 


88  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

which  you  will  witness  the  results  of  your  labors 
and  reap  the  fi'uit  of  your  doings,  would  you  not 
at  once  and  for  ever  renounce  your  destestable 
employment'?  What  if  you  must  change  your 
business  in  order  to  support  your  family!  What 
if  vou  have  a  license,  or  do  not  sell  to  drunkards, 
or  to  any  in  small  quantities  ?  And  what  if  others 
will  sell  if  you  do  not]  If  you  are  making  or  sell- 
ing, or  renting  buildings  to  be  used  for  the  sale  of 
intoxicating  liquors,  you  are  aiding  in  the  continu- 
ance of  a  practice  which  is  ruining  multitudes  of 
your  fellow-men,  a  practice  which  will  endanger 
the  lives  and  souls  of  your  children,  and,  if  con- 
tinued, will  extend  moral  and  spiritual  degrada- 
tion and  death  to  future  generations. 

The  influence  of  a  man  does  not  die  with  him. 
Long  after  Jeroboam,  the  son  of  Nebat,  was  dead, 
Jehovah  declared  that  he  would  bring  sore  and 
distressing  calamities  on  the  nation  of  Israel,  for 
the  sins  of  Jeroboam,  wherewith  he  made  Israel 
to  sin.  Not  that  they  would  be  punished  for  his 
transgressions  as  their  own ;  but  they  would  be 
punished  for  their  own  sin  in  yielding  to  his  influ- 
ence and  following  his  wicked  example.  He  taught 
them  by  practice,  the  most  expressive  of  all  teach- 
ing, that  it  was  best  to  worship  idols,  and  follow 
each  one  his  own  way,  in  opposition  to  the  re- 
vealed will  of  God.  Ages  after  he  was  dead  the 
nation  was  reaping  the  bitter  fruits  of  that  perni- 
cious influence,  which    outlived  its   author,  and 


TEMPERANCE    MANUAL  89 

poured  its  deadly  curses  upon  succeeding  genera- 
tions. Ages  after  you  are  dead,  men  may  be  going 
down  to  death  and  perdition  in  consequence  of 
your  influence.  As  they  meet  you  in  eternity,  and 
in  the  light  of  that  world  see  the  influence  which, 
foi  the  sake  of  money,  you  exerted  upon  them,  and 
as  you  trace  its  consequences  onward  for  ever, 
what  will  be  your  impressions  ]  Will  you  not  wish 
that  you  had  renounced  your  wicked  business  ] 

Suppose  yourself,  now,  where,  unless  cut  off 
suddenly,  you  soon  will  be,  on  your  death-bed. 
See  the  property  which  you  have  taken  without 
furnishing  any  valuable  equivalent ;  or  have  caused 
to  be  wasted  by  others  ;  see  the  pauperism,  crime, 
degradation  and  wretchedness  which  have  fol- 
lowed in  the  wake  of  your  employment ;  the  fami- 
ly comforts  you  have  banished,  the  lives  you  have 
destroyed,  and  the  souls  you  have  ruined,  and 
which  your  influence  will  tend  to  ruin  in  all  com- 
ing time.  Suppose  that  these  are  now  the  only 
things  which  you  have  to  comfort  you  as  you  go 
down  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  and  that, 
as  flesh  and  heart  are  failing,  they  are  your  only 
support,  and  are  to  be  your  portion  for  ever ;  and 
as  you  close  your  eyes  upon  them  here,  imagine 
them  all  to  open  upon  you  afresh  in  the  blazing 
light  of  eternity.  Will  you  not  wish  that  you  had 
now,  at  once  and  for  ever  renounced  this  employ- 
ment 1  Act  now,  I  entreat  you,  as  you  have  rea- 
son to  believe  you  will  wish  you  had  done  when 


90  TEMPERANCE    MANUAL. 

you  enter  upon  a  course  of  endless  experience, 
that,  "  as  a  man  soweth  so  shall  he  reap."  Cease 
to  do  evil,  and  choose  to  do  well.  Ask  wisdom 
of  God ;  repent  of  sin,  and  trust  in  Jesus  Christ. 
Obey  his  will.  Do  good,  and  good  only,  to  all,  as 
you  have  opportunity  and  ability.  Thus  will  good, 
all  needed  good,  be  given  to  you. 


END. 


E^^  Every  Minister  of  the  Gospel  into  whose 
hands  this  Manual  shall  come  is  respectfully  re- 
quested, should  it  appear  to  him  to  be  adapted  to 
be  useful,  to  preach  on  the  Sabbath  a  sermon  to  his 
people,  exhibiting  the  Biblical  principles  in  their 
application  to  the  subject  of  Temperance  in  its  con- 
nection with  righteousness  and  judgment  to  come, 
and  to  open  the  way  to  put  a  copy  of  this  Manual 
into  every  family  in  his  congi'egation. 


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